Broken Butterflies
The butterflies I find are broken but still beautiful. I bring these treasures to my studio and explore ways to repair them. I’m not restoring them to their original state; instead, I reimagine them, highlighting their damaged parts. Each butterfly becomes something new. I shape their bodies based on their imperfections and give them names that reflect their transformation.
The Shadow Stitcher
(w:50 h:40 d:6.5 cm.)
The dance of the broken dragonflies
(w:50 h:70 d:6.5 cm.)
Rode draad
(w:40 h:50 d:5.5 cm.)
Cloud
(w:17 h:20 d:5.5cm)
Yellow light
(w:25 h:65 d:5.5cm)
Glass ball (w:17 h:20 d:5.5cm)
Gold wing (w:26 h:35 d:5.5cm)
Glass balloon (w:17 h:20 d:5.5cm)
Pluizen-bol (w:17 h:20 d:5.5cm)
Fire-fly (w:17 h:20 d:5.5cm)
The dandelion (w:17 h:20 d:5.5cm)
"Silky family" are different types of butterflies belongs to the same family of "embroidered wings".
(w:55 h:65 d:6.5cm)
"Stardust flies" leaves a trace of stardust. The tails are made from glass filled with golden fairy dust.
The shells are made of different types of twigs. (w:50 h:70 d 6.5cm)
"Twin spinners" are dizygotic twins both have embroidered wings which are totally different from each other.
(w:40 h:50 d 5.5cm)
"Rainbow warrior" leaves a trail of love and softness. He was made from soft color feathers and confetti.
(w:65 h:25 d 6.5cm)
"Root fly" received roots to keep in contact with the earth. (w:26 h:35 d:5.5cm)
"Queen of wings" is created from pieces of broken wings. (w:40 h:50 d:5.5cm)
"Black thread butterfly" lost his wings and received two new embroidered ones. (w:40 h:50 d:5.5cm)
"Little glass fly" is going high in the sky with glass ballon. (w:14 h:17 d:5.5cm)
"Blue spot kite" is attached to a paper kite and the missing wings are spots made of ink. (w:26 h:35 d: 5.5 cm)
"Rainbow long-tailed" leaves a trail of rainbow colours with his long tail. (w:55 h:65 d: 5.5 cm)
"Black long-tailed" has a long tail that helps him to get high into the sky. (w:20 h:55 d: 5.5 cm)
"Little yellow spotted kite" is attached to a paper kite and the missing wings are spots made of ink. (w:14 h:25 d: 5.5 cm)
"Light long tailed" reflects the light with his tail and makes it twinkel. (w:55 h:65 d: 5.5 cm)
"White air"
Photo print under acrylic sheet (w:55 h:65 cm)
“The one with the feathers” lost his upper wings and was repaired with a warbonnet of feathers. (w:26 h:20 d: 5.5 cm)
"Twig-fly” has a body made of a twig and wings made from leaves. It helps him to camouflage himself in the trees.
( w:17 h:14 d:5.5 cm)
"African Queen” is wrapped in a royal african dress made from a patchwork of butterfly wings. (w:26 h:20 d:5.5 cm)
“Balloon butterfly” has a balloon instead of his broken wing, it helps him flying. (w:14 h:25 d:5.5 cm)
“Carnival” is a grashopper that dressed up like a butterfly. He got a pair of wings and high heels made from flower twigs. (w:14 h:25 d:5.5 cm)
“24 pieces butterfly” is built up from different butterfly wings, all the pieces together creating a new butterfly.
(w:25 h:14 d:5.5 cm)
"White Air” has a balloon filled up with white air. It helps the little butterfly to rice up. (w:14 h:17 d:5.5 cm)
“The tread tensioner" is missing two wings. With thread and pins I have recreated the construction the veins of his wings.
( w:17 h:14 d:5.5 cm)
The "Medusozoa" had lost her body and antennae and could no longer fly. She was given a new set of flying tools and a propeller. The movement of the Medusuzoa inspired the name. (w:14 h:25 d:5.5 cm)
"Golden root butterfly". This butterfly was missing its body and I added the plant root to recreate the butterfly's torso.
The root symbolizes an umbilical cord to the earth. (w:14 h:25 d:5.5 cm)
"Black spot butterfly" was missing two top wings, so I made the new wings by embroidering the black spots patterns on fabric. (w:17 h:14 d:5.5 cm)
"Goudrafeltje" (Gold fray). The wings of this butterfly seemed to be frayed, like a dress which has its seam missing and the fabric has frayed. I fixed the wings with gold leaf to stop further fraying. (w:17 h:14 d:5.5 cm)
"Blue spinner" lookes like it died the moment it hatched from the cocoon. This lead to me recreate the body from a twig wrapped with blue thread. A few threads are still hanging loose almost as though the butterfly is slowly unwinding and breaking free from its cocoon. (w:18 h:50 d:5.5 cm)
"Map Butterfly". The original name of this butterfly is "Atlas moth" and lives in Asia. I used the maps of Asia to repair its wings. (w:26 h:20 d:5.5 cm)