Merry Christmas

At the end of 2024 there was a new Wallace & Gromit film, which reminded me how much I love the bad penguin.

So here is my first creation of 2025.......

To commemorate our beloved rescued hen, Keen Assistant, I made her in a Wallace & Gromit style.

I'm very pleased with her egg hand grenade!

2023

So it is 2024 and it time to talk about last year...

Commissions from Butterfly Conservation Highland branch. 

Small Blue with kidney vetch. Argent and Sable with birch.

Ethmia pyrausta on alpine meadow-rue. Pearl-bordered Fritillary with violet.

Mountain Ringlet with mat grass (with mountain in the background).

I made these for Butterfly Recorders' meeting. 

Small Copper on Common Sorrel, Wood White on Meadow vetchling, and Chalk Hill Blue with Horseshoe vetch. 

Commission from Butterfly Conservation Scotland.

Marsh Fritillary on Devil's bits scabious.

Some sketches of special buildings for special Post Graduate students in Cambridge.

Purple Emperor with an egg and a caterpillar, hiding somewhere!

Duke of Burgundy on Cowslip, and Holly Blue on Ivy. I am quite pleased with the hint of blue on Holly Blue

From left to right:

Northern Arches, Scottish Annulet, and Yellow ringed carpet (with Saxifrage aizoides).

Barrett's Marbled Coronet, Bordered Gothic and the Grey

Burren Green and Irish Annulet.

White Prominent. 

All rocks and birch bark were made by me.

Prickly Juniper Pug (highly magnified!).

A nut weevil (highly magnified too!).

Limited edition Monarch earrings.

I say limited edition, because it was so time consuming and fiddly to make, and I don't know when I will be making them again!

And finally...a miniature dog!

Commissions

 2022 is almost over, all of a sudden!

Here are some commissions I have done for various people recently... 

Framed moths and butterflies.

A sketch of the Mathematical Bridge in Cambridge.

And a small illustration for this new book "Discovering Scotland's Butterflies" by Paul Kirkland. 

Please click on the image of the book if you would like to purchase from the Nature Bureau Ltd.

I am currently working on some commissions, so I shall update this blog again, soon, hopefully!

2022 So far

At the end of 2021, I had a commission for making Moth and Mushroom Christmas Decorations!

I do enjoy making mushrooms....

And of course some 3D butterflies for Scottish Butterfly Conservation. 

In order to work hard, I must procrastinate. 

My wonderful Mother (not Moth-er. Mother as in Mum) sends me boxes of handcrafted chocolates every year. 

So, I made a miniature of them. 

How cute are they!? 

2021 So far

I had some moth and butterfly related commissions.

I really enjoy making these "background" items such as this - a dead leaf.

And here's a 3D model of Elephant Hawkmoth on fuchsia.

Hello 2021

 The last time I wrote anything here was February 2019. I had a lot of very enjoyable commissions since then. Here are some of them...

Light and Dark Crimson Underwing

Olive Crescent on handmade leaf & Scarce Merveille du Jour

Ground Lackey & Crescent Striped.      Straw Belle & Chalk Carpet

Orache and Beautiful Marbled

2020

I had a quite productive year. Although there weren't any events to go to, I had enough orders and lots of OTHER things to do. 

The year started with Pine Tree Lappet. And then an army of Orange Tip magnets for Butterfly Conservation's Mother's (Not Moth-er's) Day promotion.

Made a new range of badges and magnets... 

And I spent hours on our almost derelict driveway, watching 6-7 Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillars feeding on the willowherbs. 

I had a couple of wonderful commissions, but for sad occasions. 

This one is a full set of Scottish butterflies in a frame. 

I made a food plant for each butterfly. This photo above looks like a 2D painting... 

But they are definitely 3D!

And here's the finished product. 

Another one was a pair of Marsh Fritillaries and caterpillars. 

I have a couple of thing on the go at the moment, so I'm sure you'll get to see them here in 2022. 

During the lockdown I fell in love with Baby Yoda, so I made one, which works as a Christmas decoration as well.