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Butterfly SettingandPreserving

Butterfly SettingandPreserving

Butterfly SettingandPreserving


Spread your wings and get into butterfly setting and preserving! Learn how to display butterflies on a spreading board with the help of expert taxidermist and artist Suzette Field. These one-day workshops at Suzette's studio in Crouch End will show you how. This delicate form of insect taxidermy was a hugely popular pastime for the Victorians with the likes of Churchill and Chamberlain curating their own collections of butterflies. It has since fallen out of favour but more recently artists such as Damien Hirst (who said: 'Everyone loves butterflies') have championed this art of displaying and preserving butterflies. Indeed when you think of butterfly setting and preserving you probably picture heavy mahogany cabinets with sliding drawers smelling of mothballs filled with examples of colourful butterflies and moths pinned to boards with neatly written descriptions beside each one. Proud collectors boasted specimens from around the world in an age when travel was for the few. Butterfly collecting also harks back to halycon days of care-free childhoods running around meadows with a net. Butterfly collecting setting and preservation was a fascination for many. Now it is a rare thing. You are legally allowed to collect butterflies as long as you have the land owner's permission and as long as they are not on the list of rare species. You'll be pleased to hear our taxidermy expert sources all her insects and animals responsibly. The aim of her workshops is to revive this traditional hobby with a modern more artistic twist. It's actually more like art and science combined as you learn how to prepare the butterfly and then place your specimen. The lepidopterist's friend is the entomologist's forceps. Rather like tweezers this sharp-pointed instrument is what you'll be using to gently move and spread the wings of the butterfly. The very knowledgeable Suzette will be guiding you at every stage of the butterfly setting process and at the end of the workshop you get to take home your creations. Book this unusual but very creative and enjoyable day out!
£45.00

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