Artist spaces: Duluth artist turns bugs into jewelry - Duluth News Tribune
It started three years ago when she ran across pieces at a Bayfield art fair. She started practicing with resin and different arrangements with wings. She soon approached the Lake Superior Zoo after they opened their butterfly exhibit in 2017.
"I called and asked what they did with butterflies when they're deceased. They didn't do anything," Roushar recalled. Zoo staff were accommodating, and they'd collect and gather materials for her.
Other sources are friends, the woods, parking lots. Half the time, they fall out of people's grills, so highly used gas stations on long strips of highway are a hot spot, she said, adding, they're there if you look for them, she said.
"It grosses people out because I'm walking around with boxes of dead bugs," she said.
And that's literal.
In her Lincoln Park home studio, there's a cardboard box with dry monarch butterflies in cream, orange and dots on the edges. There's also a dehydrator in the corner, a camera, a row of jewelry pliers, pendants in amber, brown and mint and many shelves with drying space.
It can take three or four days to dry an insect, or eight hours in the dehydrator.
When she gets bugs, she's careful to keep them out of the sun to preserve the colors, and she dries them soon to avoid mold.
"Nobody wants to work with gooey bugs, so I wait till they're completely desiccated," she said.
Monarchs are kind of violent, so a lot of time, they knock the tips out of their top wings, making it more difficult to find intact pieces to work with.
And it can be tricky getting the bugs apart. They're delicate, but when they're dry, their scales don't come off easily, she said, squishing the body with jewelry pliers that made a crunchy sound.
She placed the wings on a flat surface. They're not completely symmetrical because they're a living thing, but you're more likely to get a matching pair for a set of earrings when you stick with the same bug, she said.
The resin epoxy mixture looked like warm honey, as she stirred a tiny plastic stick in a clear, thickening liquid. It takes about five minutes to get the proper viscosity, you don't want it to roll off the wings.
"You don't want puddles; you want it to self-dome," she said.
Roushar gently spread the resin out, one side at a time. Working with resin is time-sensitive, and it needs to be applied in 20-25 minutes. When it soaks into the wing scales, it changes its color and preserves it. She likes to use a thin layer so the earrings aren't too heavy.
Roushar sealed it with a lighter and heated up a hand drill with a flame to poke holes for metal bindings. That day, she made earrings, but she also does necklaces and ornaments.
It's not difficult work, but it is "piddly," and it takes a decent amount of time, she said.
Challenges to her process are bubbles, dust and chemical composition. If the measurements are off, the resin won't harden or it'll get cloudy.
She often wears a bandana over her mouth to keep her breath from sending the wings on an unwanted trajectory, and to avoid too much chemical inhalation.
She saves the ones that don't turn out in a "graveyard of wings and feathers."
Roushar moved to Duluth with her family from Kansas City, Mo., five years ago. She doesn't wear much jewelry herself, but said it's gratifying to see people wearing her work. Her business is a creative break in her day job as a payroll auditor; "I'm part nerd, part artist."
On the walls in her studio are "nerd art" — pictures of Thanos, Spider-Man and "Deadpool before he was popular." In the drawers, random items like shopping supplies and seashells. On the door is a handwritten Bible verse.
Roushar uses her grandmother's vintage hair box to organize her ready-to-sell pieces.
She's experimenting with dried flowers. Up next, maybe peacock feathers, maybe sterling silver.
Duluth is a very environmentally careful place, and people often want to know if she got her goods "nicely" or if she "caught a bunch of helpless butterflies." But that's not her MO.
Many are drawn to butterflies, which are naturally fleeting and temporary. This process makes it permanent. "It won't go bad, it won't deteriorate.
"I can provide this process, and they can have the end result."
Find her work
Find Roushar's work at the Lake Superior Zoo, the Dovetail Cafe in Lincoln Park. More info: www.facebook.com/northshoreeclectic.
