Chasing Butterflies, Part II

Because I was unhappy with the first set of butterflies, I went back to the drawing board and made a second set using the same techniques (making the pattern, tracing the pattern onto BFK Rives, cutting, coloring, adding iridescent medium, felting the wings into the wool bodies, and adding wire antennae). The second set has smaller bodies, thinner wire antennae, and slightly larger wings with a different pattern on them. This time I only used the iridescent medium on the white spots on the wings instead of the whole wing. I think it looks better because it makes the white pop when under glass and you can see the detail on the wings much better.

Here is a view of the top of the butterfly:

Here is the bottom of the butterfly:

After the butterflies were finished I mounted them to the birch branch:

Here is a close-up of the butterflies on the branch: 

Along with the butterflies, I added one emerging from a cocoon: 

...And a caterpillar made of felted wool and glass beads that were the same colors as the butterflies' wings:

To finish the piece I covered the bottom plate with moss and added a piece of birch bark, on which I mounted one of the butterflies:

The finished piece is under a large glass bell jar. Hopefully I'll be able to convince my photographer brother to take a picture of the piece under glass, because my pictures don't do it justice:

 So this is the first piece in my "Vegan Taxidermy" series, I call this "Life Cycle of the Blue-Eyed Butterfly: Hyacintho Oculus Papilio."