Stephanie Przybylek of Creative Animal Longwood Community Tree Ornaments

What inspires like jewel-tones but is easily seen in the natural world all around us?

I considered ways of connecting my love of nature to ornaments. I spend a lot of time during the summer in the Adirondacks, and while out in a boat in late August, I noticed a dragonfly land on my hand and remain for several moments. Beautiful colors, greens, blues, almost sparkling… and hence my idea! He landed at the perfect moment.

Using lightweight polymer clay, translucent polymer clay, Yupo translucent paper, acrylic mediums and acrylic gouache, mica powder (a new material for me), and a host of other materials, I’m creating a series of dragonflies.

I began by testing materials and experimenting with varied combinations until I was satisfied with the results. 

Each dragonfly body is sculpted by hand, and some are dusted with mica powder. Others have painted highlights. The legs are cut by hand. The wings are each cut and drawn by hand, using three permanent black ink pens.

Then they dry overnight. The final product includes a layer of Golden interference paint on the wings to increase the sense of jewel-like shifting of tones in the light.

And I’ll be adding a few to my own tree this season, as well as having some for sale in the shop!

You can find these beautiful ornaments for the Bellefonte Arts Community Tree at Longwood Gardens, during the annual A Longwood Christmas (Nov 21, 2025 through Jan 11, 2026).

Longwood Gardens is located at 1001 Longwood Road, Kennett Square, PA 19348.

Bellefonte Arts is located at 803 C Brandywine Blvd, Wilmington, DE 19809.