There are many animal lovers in the world. These people show they care about animals by volunteering at animal shelters or saving small fluffy critters who wander into the road late at night.
One animal loving woman shows her animal-love by repairing the wings of butterflies.
Katie VanBlaricum makes jewelry out of real insects and is an expert at repairing the delicate wings of butterflies, performing transplants and ensuring that the tiny critters are able to take flight once more. This meticulous process requires an incredible amount of patience, dexterity, and passion.
She is the founder of Insect Art and she has a real passion for insects.
“I have always been interested in insects and wildlife. My ‘Insect Art’ business has been around for nearly 14 years now, and I make my living buying and seling insect specimens for art and science. They always come from sustainably foarmed sources.
“My favorite thing about insects is their diversity. Any shape or color or behavior you can dream up, there’s an insect for that!”
Katie doesn’t normally perform wing repairs on live butterflies…
The local zoo actually discovered her and wanted her help with their butterflies. She commented about this in a Facebook post saying:
“I don’t usually do live butterflies, but now the zoo found out that I ccan and they’re bringing me patients. This one was deformed out of the crysalis, so I did a wing transplant. Hoping he can fly tomorrow.”
Katie says that repairing the wings isn’t difficult for her and that she mainly has to focus on making the repair fast so that it doesn’t stress out the butterfly more than necessary. She also never doubted butterfly wing transplants were possible:
“I have a friend who works at a butterfly conservatory, and I have seen his “Frankenstein” butterflies flying around there, so I knew it was possible. I asked him for advice, as well as consulting the internet.”
The monarch had a steady recovery. Katie had been taking him out to some flower gardens outside, but she had always re-captured him. On the day of his release, he flew up into the canopy of an oak tree.
The little fella is off to show his butterfly pals his sweet new wings.
Katie says that helping people understand animals is a passion of hers.
“Lots of people think they don’t like “bugs”, but once they come to know and understand them, most people can find something to love about insects! I have volunteered for wildlife rehab for over ten years, and I’m a docent at our local zoo, so helping animals and helping people understand animals is a long term passion of mine.”
She certainly has a way with animals. Thank you Katie, for helping the critters of the world get back to their homes.
