I was asked to make a monarch butterfly for a friend in California, where monarch populations are in sharp decline. It took me over a month to design it and perfect the technique of painting the delicate black lines and white dots on the glass. The paint is enamel and has to be fired twice, once for each colour. I then put copper foil tape around the edges of the glass to enable me to solder the pieces together. I added a rod on the back so it can be displayed more easily. Each butterfly takes about a week to complete. The photos don’t really do it justice, as it is more beautiful in reality. It is best viewed with light behind it to reveal its true colours.

Each butterfly weighs 111 grams.
They are approximately 16 cm by 12 cm by 3 cm.