Collection of Specimens
Hi everyone!
I’ve always loved Victorian insect collections (well, also from other periods, but I have a soft spot for Victorian aesthetics), so when we (=Crafty People United) decided on nature as our stream hop’s theme last Saturday, I figured why not try to make one?
The one thing that always bugged me (pun intended) about insect collections is the pins that hold the insects in place. I know they were all dead when they were pinned down and that, at least for the most part, they died naturally and just collected. But I can’t help it - it just looks painful… So paper insects with no pins seemed like the perfect option for me. Thankfully, Tim Holtz has released some amazing insect stamps over the years, and of course I had to have them all (their details are listed bellow), so I could play mix and match with insect types and sizes.
The frame is a simple Ikea frame that I decorated. Victorian insect collections were usually placed in simple glass-lead boxes with very little decor, but I felt like making the frame more special. Part of the reason was the the proportions of the frame (A4) and the proportions of the paper I wanted to use (letter size) didn’t fit, the paper was slightly too short on the long side so I had to add some sort of inner frame to match them. I had the idea to use flat bamboo skewers to build an inner frame, and while I could have left the rest of the frame as is, I thought that an extra step on the outer frame would make it more interesting. So I took out my texture paste and with the help of a ruler built a higher layer on the frame. And while I was at it, I also added a pattern to the sides of the frame with a stencil, because - why not?
The little plaque at the bottom of the frame was made with a stamp from the specimen set. I stamped it into air drying clay, then gently cut around the text with a craft knife and let dry. When it was dry I painted it black and used waxes to bring out the text and give it a metallic finish.
The background was done with oxide inks. I stamped the main composition (=the butterflies) first in vintage photo archival ink and then did the good old blend & spritz technique. To create more variation in the staining, I dabbed away the water of the first spritz, using a paper towel, and left the drips of the second spritz to air dry. This way some areas get a soft edge while others get a more defined line edge.
Then it was time to make some bugs! I stamped my insects of choice on Bristol smooth paper (it has good thickness for paper shaping) with archival ink and cut them out, using the matching dies for all except the two big ones that don’t have dies. I gushed quite a bit about the insect dies set in the live stream, they really are amazingly detailed.
Then I colored the insects with distress crayons (which led to another gushing session in the stream… You know you said something a bit too much when people bring on the banter 😂). To give them more life, I used my shaping tools and tweezers to give dimension to the bodies and wings. It’s pretty cool to see how realistic these bugs can look when you get all their leggies to stand. For a finishing touch, I added some clear Nuvo drops to the bodies of the insects and brushed some on their wings. I didn’t do this step with the butterflies, because they tend to be less shiny (they’re pretty fuzzy if you look at closeups).
Then all that was left to do was glue all the insects in place. I used some foam tape under the bodies to accentuate their dimension and glued each leg by its tiny-tiny foot. It took a while to get every thing down exactly where I wanted, but - totally worth it! At least in my opinion :)
I’m really happy with how this came out, and it was super fun chatting to the viewers in the live-stream about everything from glue and ink to cicada’s lifecycle and gardening for bugs. If you missed the live, you can catch the replay here. And do visit the other streams of the hop, everyone made such cool projects and it was so much fun to see where everyone took the theme (spoiler: we each went in a completely different direction). We do these Saturday hops quite often (it’s usually once in two weeks nowadays), so if you’re looking for some crafty inspiration and general shenanigans keep your eyes peeled for the next one ;)
xx
Naama
Materials list:
A4 Ikea frame (I believe this one’s called Ribba)
Ranger texture paste, opaque matte
Finnabair stencil: oriental wall
Finnabair heavy gesso, black
Amsterdam acrylic paint, oxide black
Bamboo flat skewers
Mixed media heavy stock paper
Bristol smooth, Koh-I-Noor paper
Distress Oxide inks: old paper & tea dye
Archival ink: black soot & vintage photo
Tim Holtz stamps: flutter (CMS294), entomology (CMS328) & specimen (CMS410)
Tim Holtz dies: flutter (662269) & entomology (663068)
Distress crayons
Nuvo Crystal Drops, morning dew (=clear)
Air drying clay
Finnabair waxs: bronze age & vintage gold
Tonic Studios paper flowers tool kit
Finnabair heavy body gel
Tim Holtz collage medium