To everyone in the comments- No, the beetles aren’t killed for their wings. These jewel beetles have short adult lives (2-3 weeks) and the wing casings are harvested after their death to ensure their conservation.
The Victorians did not invent beetlewing art. This species of beetle is indigenous to South and South East Asia where beetle wing art actually originated. Thailand, India, Myanmar, China, and Japan all practiced beetlewing art before the Victorians. Most notably, they have been used for centuries in clothing and art in the Thai royal court. Queen Sirikit has promoted beetlewing art in an effort to revive Thailand’s art and cultural history. Queen Sirikit has also forbidden the harvesting of the wing casings prior to the beetle’s death to protect them.
Unfortunately, it is hard to find old Thai art online but here are a couple of examples.
(Date and artist unknown. Thailand.)
(René Mancini, 1980.) Belongs to Queen Sirikit.
please reblog this version of this post, this is amazing
Some postcards and a variation I made for the pre-orders of the book Buster from Avid Bookshop!! A book about anxiety, secret dog society, card games, and includes a dog hacker and dog thief!! Cannot recommend highly enough.
My gender was sold to a raccoon pay for my rent, just another example of why the economy is failing, I had to sell my gender to an adorable raccoon, just because I get payed minimum wage, and apartments are expensive,
28 y/o nonbinary bisexual, ex art student, feminist, cat and plant mom, fan of birbs, nerd, social worker in the making.
Ask me shit if you want, I'll answer almost anything.
