"The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you" - B.B. King

Hi! My name is Elise. Everything I do here is self taught, I've never had special schooling or an apprenticeship, but I've put many hours into studying the process of insect pinning and jewelry making to a point where I can be confident in my abilities and offer them to you.

Insect pinning? What's that? Are these REAL bugs?

YES! Insect pinning is the process of re-hydrating an insect so all its parts are moveable again, and then setting it in the position you want (with pins). After death they dry out and become very brittle, so you need to restore that moisture. This is most commonly done by placing your insect into a "hydration chamber", which is really just a fancy way of saying air-tight container with warm, damp paper towels. Basically a bug sauna! The time your little friend is in there will vary depending on its size, but somewhere between a day and three, usually. Some larger bugs will take even longer!

Once our friend is nice and ready...
♪ You know what to do with that big fat buuug
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle ♪

Okay, so now you want to make sure each appendage is nice and flexible. Once we've stretched (and, yes, wiggled), you're finally ready to pin him down. Woohoo! After you've got him the way you want him, let him hang out like that for a couple days - he needs some time to adjust (why do I feel like we're not talking about bugs anymore?..) Once he's ready, you can remove all your carefully placed pins and he'll be just the way you want him.

And that's the basics of insect pinning.

So I hope I made learning about my process and what I do to create a piece enjoyable. Sorry about all the bug puns. Sure. You can pretend they were louse-y. You can ants if you want to, you can weevil your friends behind....OK, OK.

But thanks for reading, and I hope you drop by again!