I've had a really exciting few weeks visiting galleries and archives as part of my research for my latest textile project and today was an excuse for another!
I went to the Zoology Museum in Cambridge and had a really great day. I was booked into see the butterfly and moth collections that are in storage at the museum, which aren't normally open to the public so was extremely lucky to have the chance to see them. Russell, the museums insect expert explained the stories behind how the collections came to the Zoology museum and also background information into just a tiny section of the 50,000+ different species of butterflies and moths that they own. The collection includes varieties of butterflies and moths from all over the world and many of them come from countries such as Malaysia and the far east, but are conserved so beautifully they look as if they have just emerged from their chrysalis!
In particular, I was interested in looking in moths with interesting markings and patterns and also with natural colour palettes and was really spoilt for choice. Overall, I had a really lovely morning looking around the collection and also the museum itself, and would really recommend the visit to anyone! http://www.museum.zoo.cam.ac.uk/
Some beautiful patterns and colours within the wings but would you believe these patterns are on the underside of the wings
I really love the natural colours in these moths, and also the speckled patterns within the smaller species
Exotic species
The wings in this photograph have been stripped down using a very soft brush to remove the coloured 'scales' on top of the butterflies wings. I couldn't believe how translucent and delicate they were
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