Butterflies are preserved in unique glass sculptures
Environment and the organisms that live on our planet intrigue artist Laura Hart. She creates beautiful glass art to honour the almost limitless aesthetic variety of fauna. Her Lepidoptera series, which highlights the visual variety of these creatures, shows threatened and unusual butterflies with astounding attention to detail. Hart is able to capture both the range of behaviors on their wings and the various forms they take.
According to Hart’s description of her work, “each item is carefully rebuilt to mimic its natural equivalent.” “The bodies are cast in glass using the lost wax method and pate de verre methods, while the wings are made using fused glass in numerous phases. To provide anatomical detail, the legs, antennae, and proboscis are made of sterling silver. The statues are around 7 inches broad when finished.
Hart restricts every butterfly to an edition of one, even though it is extremely simple to produce multiples in the material of glass. She explains, “I produce only one per species or type, their individuality and vulnerability highlighting the genuine fear of extinction these wonderful animals face owing to human activities. Given that many varieties of butterfly and moth teeter on the brink of life in our ever-decreasing world.
Butterfly glass artworks by artist Laura Hart are based on rare and threatened butterflies.
