Specimens from Japanese designer Guusan’s book of butterflies. His unique collection was derived from a variety of typographic fonts.

Icy encounters by macro photographer Wil Mijer

Artist and entomologist Vadim Zaritsky recycles butterfly wings into works of art.

Inspiring imagery by Photoflake

Psalm Prints by Damien Hirst

Cathedral Prints by Damien Hirst

Also available as dinnerware:

Anne Ten Donkelaar’s Wittenoord is a series of “Fragile jewels of nature…captured in glass beads”.

Monarch clusters at Pismo Beach Monarch Perserve photographed by Beth Sargent

Alis Volat Propis (She flies with her own wings) by Taegan Robertsby is made with 1,000 origami butterflies.

Morphia’s Waltz by Ivaylo Petrov

Virtue of Blue by Jeroen Verhoeven 

About the project:

Powered by its own solar energy. A chandelier which playfully explores an economy of light through innovative materials. Powered by sapphire-blue solar panel cells, the piece is intrinsically self-sustaining as it absorbs the energy of daylight to fuel its own illumination. The cells have been cut into the shapes of four different breeds of butterfly and these seem to flutter around a central flame-like hand-blown glass bulb, their iridescent wings glinting in the light. The semiotics of this design are highly significant as the butterflies become signifiers of the light’s self-sufficiency; physically, these insects also power their own bodies, using their wings to absorb the rays of the sun, in turn raising and sustaining their own body temperatures to that which is necessary for their survival.

Watercolor and ink work by Colleen Parker.

Stéphane Picot’s beautiful macro photography makes me dread the spring resurgence of bugs a little less. Especially if it means getting to see more photos like these.

Swarm by Alexander James

About the project:

The butterfly has wide significance through different cultures; as a symbol of love, regeneration, fortune, freedom, spirituality and death. Of particular interest to me is that Greek mythology links the butterfly to the souls of those who have passed away.

This series explores these subjects as they appear hyper-real and painterly as light from the waters own wave energy interacts with the scene. I breed these remarkable creatures myself, and through this process for me a strong dialogue becomes apparent. As if asking us to accept the changes in our lives as abiding as she does. The butterfly unquestioningly embraces the changes of both her body and environment. The epic transition that this delicate creature undergoes gives hope as it expends energy on a huge scale to make it happen. Imagine if you would, the whole of your life changing to such an extreme where you are unrecognizable at the end of the transformation offers great hope to me.

Exploring these themes through the introduction of water; acting as both nurturer and destroyer, it has the power to cleanse and reinvent, or to drown and disappear. Believing that drawing on water’s transient and destructive nature exposes the fragility of life, and the temporary nature of our existence.

This series for me acts as a reflection on life and mortality; it is fleeting, beautiful and ultimately tragic.

These wonderful plates from the Peyton Plates Etsy store put butterflies in my stomach too.