how many polys are they ?
try to reduce the molycont on the bottom i d say , and mainly the one of the lace , also try to merge the handle with the claws themselves.
can you try to textures them with sutff like flames or so ?
for uvmapping in wings , i suggest you make saved selections sets before starting the uvmap, make one with the edges between the claws and the handlesand select an edge that goes from the bottom to the top of eatche claws , the goal is to imagine than you have like a big figue in paper and then you are trying to cut the paper along the edges in order to put the paper flat.
Once it s done click on unwap , select eges for cut , then unwrap , the editor will distord some of the faces in order to put the \"paper\" flat , if the distortion is too big for the texture to loook good , then cancel , and modify the selection set .
In the same idee if you need more resolution on some face, by cutting the \"paper\" diffrently you can get it. Also , once it s unwrapped , move and scale the maps in order to use the maximum of place , and scale the part wich need a lot of resolution very big.
I hope it helps , and like usualy us gimp2 to texture
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