Butterfly Project

(3) Butterfly Donations

July 21, 2011

The award for the most prolific butterfly maker goes to...Cindi Buhrig!...who donated 7 beautiful butterflies for the project.


Aren't You Orange © Cindi Buhrig

Green Spotted Sunshine-a-fly © Cindi Buhrig

Swirly-fly © Cindi Buhrig

Optic Drop Fly © Cindi Buhrig

Filler Love Flies © Cindi Buhrig

July 22, 2011

Today I completed my fourth whimsical butterfly...and I use the term "butterfly" loosely.

I call this critter "The Aztec God of Winged Creatures". The small mosaic is about 4 inches across and is made mostly of iridescent glass accented with millefiori slices, dichroic cabs and some navy blue mirror glass.

Did you know that the Aztecs believed that Monarch butterflies were the spirits of fallen warriors dressed in battle colors?

Aztec God of Winged Creatures © Eve O.

Artist Susan Walden donated two butterflies made with stained glass, iridized glass, glass gems and Van Gogh glass. The bottom butterfly, titled Joseph Fly, represents the Coat of Many Colors.

Flitter Fly © Susan Walden

Joseph Fly © Susan Walden

Artist Ilona Bryan's donation arrived from England. Her large butterfly (7" across x 9" tall) is made with ceramic tile, venetian glass tile and glass gems.

There are lots of photos floating around of the other butterfly donations that are destined to be included in the project so I suppose I'll be getting some more in the mail in the next few days.

I have two more unusual butterflies in the works too so stay posted!

(5) Butterfly donations

July 25, 2011

Today's mailbox was stuffed full with more beautiful butterflies!

Artist Jessey Lucas donated five butterflies all made with a combination of stained glass and glass tile.

5th / Final butterfly....before I need and intervention

Another rainy morning.....couldn't help myself

Just couldn't go to bed without making 1 more

And artist Silva Hayes donated three butterflies made with stained glass and detailed with a black and white china plate along the rim.

I love the primary colors mixed with the black and white edges!

Butterflies for Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium

(6) Installation day

August 26, 2011

With the 3 foot "happy gator" finally installed on the wall at the Calusa Nature Center, the butterfly installation is finally beginning to look like what I designed in my head almost a month ago. The butterflies are absolutely beautiful but the addition of the large alligator makes the entire design more fun!

The installation

I began the day with the big alligator in two pieces. I was working on it on a large piece of cardboard so I had to peel it away from the plastic wrap and trim the excess mesh away.

Then I covered the back with thinset and applied the tail end to the wall. Then I did the same for the head piece being careful to line up the pieces. I left about an inch of wall space underneath the alligator because I didn't want the mosaic to ever be in danger of sitting in standing water.

Below is a photo of the alligator on the wall. You can still see a small gap between where I joined the tail and head together.

I filled the gap with stained glass to complete the mosaic.

Here's the finished "happy gator"...


Happy Gator installation © 2011 Eve O.

When you see the butterfly cloud with the alligator underneath it from far away, it makes more sense now...well, as much sense as a large reptile dreaming of butterflies can make!

Here's a shot of the finished installation from far away. It's hard to miss with all that glittering glass and mirror.

After I installed the big alligator, I added two more butterflies to the cloud above him. One was Danette Polglase's small butterfly (the lime green and blue one right above the alligator's eye). It was just the right size for the bottom of the swarm.

I also added my son's "Dragon-fly". It's one of my favorite mosaic butterflies!

After lunch I installed almost all of the remaining butterflies (I have 3 left!) on the two side walls.

Artist Stef Lach's mirrored butterfly on the bottom right...

And five more butterflies on the bottom of this wall.

There were two butterflies that were donated from artist Sharon Olson and Jessie Kuhlman that were created on a cottony mesh. The mesh was so lightweight and flexible that it allowed me to curve their butterflies around the rounded corner of one of the side walls.


© 2011 Eve O.

To round off the day I added artist Cindy White's soda pop top butterflies to the walls. They were inspired by her young grandson and they garnered quite a bit of attention!

And now for the animal pics...!

Furry and scaly Calusa Nature Center inhabitants

My all time fave Buffalo Bill, the Sulcata Tortoise. He was abandoned by an owner that could no longer care for him. He's gentle and surprisingly fast when he walks his laps around his enclosure every morning.

Freedom the Bald Eagle...she was hit by a car and can no longer live in the wild. I have a pair of Bald Eagles that live in my neighborhood. They are some of the most amazing birds. Their bright yellow talons are seriously scary!

Perry the Prairie Dog...I love this little guy! He rolls around the center during the day in a giant hamster ball.


Perry the Prairie Dog © 2011 Eve O.

Banded Water Snake...a new addition to the nature center. These are common in Florida and are sometimes confused with the venomous Water Moccasin.

And last but not least, the center's Rainbow Boa, an exotic snake native to Central & South America. She/he is moving to another refuge soon so Adam, the center's Education Director, was transferring her to a more suitable container for traveling.

The snake had a beautiful chocolate brown pattern but the species gets the name 'Rainbow Boa" from their iridescent sheen, shown in this photo from Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicrates_cenchria

Looks just like iridized glass!

I'll be back at the center sometime tomorrow afternoon to work on getting the last few butterflies on the wall and to start grouting the two side walls full of butterflies.

More progress pics to follow!

(6) Butterfly donations

July 26, 2011

Last night I finished up two more unusual butterflies for the project.

The first one (pictured below), a Winged Sasquatch, was inspired by one of my early Sasquatch artworks titled Peace, Love & Hairiness, completed in 2008.

He's about 4" wide and 5" tall, made with stained glass, millefiori slices and dichroic glass bubbles.

The second one (below) is a small glam rock butterfly inspired by my 80's rock days. (I once did an entire high heel like this!)

It's 5" wide and about 1.5" tall, made with opalescent pink & lime glass, millefiori slices and a dichroic glass bubble - it positively shimmers when the light hits it!

Van Halen anyone?

(7) Butterfly donations

July 27, 2011

Today artist Helen Schloss-Griffin's three butterflies arrived.

She did a tongue-in-cheek "Pig-fly", which I just love...

She also created two other butterflies, one using stained glass and the other using sea glass and sea shells.

I am taking a break from butterfly making for the time being as I received a commission for a Winged Sasquatch and I'm trying to finish it up by the weekend.

(Want one too? Email me for details!)

After that I have two more small zebra striped butterflies planned for the project.

There are several more batches of butterflies criss-crossing the country on their way to Florida. Stay posted for pics!

The Dragon-fly emerges and other butterfly related news

August 24, 2011

I finished up my son's Dragon-fly mosaic today. He sketched it for me a few weeks ago and I converted it into a mosaic for the mural using stained glass.

Here is the original sketch:

And here is the finished mosaic:

The eye is made from a tiny piece of a dichroic glass cabochon that I cut to size. The wings aren't nearly as red-orange as they look here. I couldn't get the colors to ring true on my photo editing program!

I'll be adding this "butterfly" to the wall the next time I'm up at the Calusa Nature Center...maybe this coming Friday or over the weekend.

I also squeezed in a little bit of work on the big alligator that will go underneath the main butterfly cloud. As I was working on it, I thought I was making decent progress but I can see from the photo below that I still have a lot of mosaicing to go!

Luckily the glass pieces are much larger than usual.

Still more work to do!

In other butterfly related news...

I have been so busy with The Butterfly Project installation that I thought I was going to miss the local Zombicon deadline this year.

I've been exhibiting undead artwork at the Dark Art show that coincides with Fort Myers' Zombicon for the last 3 years and I was unhappy that I was going to break my streak. I just didn't think that I was going to have time to make the September 1st deadline.

And then it hit me...zombie butterflies!

Here's what resulted from that epiphany...

Also of note, artist Silva Hayes was so enamored with making butterflies that she made one for her own residence and installed it on the side of her house!

See...

It looks awesome!

I have to admit that I really love making butterflies too. If they start popping up all over town, you'll know where to come looking!

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