Beautiful Butterflies

GweddusArt



Red Brick Glass

I like butterflies because they are delicate, beautiful, not at all scary like some flying insects... colourful, fragile, ephemeral, but most of all they are inspiring!

Did you know that there are between 15,000 and 20,000 species of butterflies worldwide?  That seems such an incredible figure, it is hard to imagine!

Did you know that artistic depictions of butterflies have been used in many cultures including Egyptian hieroglyphs 3500 years ago?

Encaustic Art

The reason I decided to write about butterflies is because culturally, butterflies are a very popular motif in the visual and literary arts.  They inspire all of us. As you can see from the photos on this post, they continue to so so in our arts and crafts work:

Black Cats Whiskers

     



pollypurplehorse



Sian Bostwick jewellery

Have you ever been to a Butterfly farm?  It is a lovely experience.  I visited Stratford-Upon-Avon Butterfly farm a few years ago.  It is so amazing to be surrounded by butterflies of all different sizes and colours!


I think it is great that butterflies are widely used in various objects of art and jewellery: mounted in frames, embedded in resin, displayed in bottles, laminated in paper, drawn, sewn and used in mixed media artworks and furnishings.  They seem to deserve this honour, somehow.

In Ancient Greek word for "butterfly" is ψυχή (psȳchē), which primarily means "soul", "mind".

In Chinese culture two butterflies flying together are a symbol of love. And in some old cultures, butterflies also symbolize rebirth into a new life after being inside a cocoon for a period of time.

Dab and a dash

I could have included even more examples of butterflies from the lovely creative folk at Folksy, but this is a first for me and it has taken ages and ages to put this post together.  I think I was a bit ambitious to try this so early in my blogging career!!

What I would like to do now is offer you something really special.  I am giving away a free pack of four Patchwork Christmas cards.  All you have to do is join as a follower if you aren't already, and leave a comment, and the person to receive the Christmas cards will be chosen by some random method!

Patchwork Xmas Cards

Another thing you must do is checkout the butterflies in my Folksy shop.  There is one at the moment, but I will be listing another during the coming week!

Careford Creations

I am sure butterflies will continue to inspire us as they have done for thousands of years, so let's all carry on the good work!

http://www.folksy.com/shops/HandmadebyEdwina

BFN Edwina

P.S.  Don't forget to leave a comment.  You could be the winner of these lovely Christmas cards!