I wonder if anyone could help....

**Di Sandland** · 01-04-2010, 04:40 PM

C J Resins ;-)

**caroleallen** · 01-04-2010, 05:07 PM

I think they'd look more contemporary set in resin but I do wonder whether people would buy butterfly wing jewellery as they couldn't be sure the butterflies had died naturally? It's probably just me though?

**Di Sandland** · 01-04-2010, 05:26 PM

I did wonder that myself, Carole, but thought maybe it was just me! The wings are very beautiful but there's something a bit macabre about them I think.

**jille** · 01-04-2010, 05:26 PM

I'm a glass artist, you could make a clear glass cab using tecta clear bullseye glass but personally I think resin would be better, getting the cab to a consistant shape and size to fit ther bezel would be a faff. My mother had one of these years ago, I think maybe if you demonstrate how they are made at the butterfly farm people might buy them, i know I'd be concerned if I didn't have some background information
have a good easter

**benjamgreen** · 02-04-2010, 10:58 AM

Thanks again for your tips and feedback. I totally agree that there is something a bit macabre about any artistic work where parts of dead animals are showcased. However, I find the scale arrangements of butterfly wings to be staggeringly beautiful, which i suppose accounts in no small part for my involvement in this field. I would never have bought anything along the lines of that which i'm now trying to produce before i worked at the farm, but day after day of sweeping up dead specimens and unceremoniously chucking them out with the rubbish has changed my perspective a little. I think, as mentioned, the knowledge that the specimen has lived a good life in a very large butterfly farm and died of old age is crucial to making the practice acceptable at all. The macabre feel still remains for me personally though, as with the framed specimens i produce.

As for whether anybody else will buy them, my experience selling frames has shown me that those of us who even consider whether the specimen has died naturally or been killed are in a tiny minority. "It's just a butterfly - why do you even care" is worryingly the most common response to my posters explaining the ethical side of my practices. It has been a major stumbling block for selling frames, as the nature of my work means that i cannot compete on price with the east asian producers who kill their specimens as soon as they emerge from the pupa - i had pinned my hopes on the organic/veggie/green movement being a little further advanced!

Anyway, if i do start trying to sell them, then they'll be in the farm shop with a good blurb for those who are interested - but i can guarantee it'll be a minority who read it - most will see the pretty colours and grab!

**Di Sandland** · 02-04-2010, 11:25 AM

I hope it does well for you Ben - and don't even try to compete with the import market; it's a scenario we all know so well. If we start underpricing ourselves then we not only devalue our own work but that of our colleagues too. Up the independent maker! (I'm imagining a Citizen Smith type freedom fighter here

)