Papillon Belle

The average butterfly only lives between 1 and 4 weeks, but Audrey Botha has found a way to immortalize them. The butterflies used in her collection are sourced from farming projects all over the world and are bred in a sustainable manner. By purchasing jewelry from Papillon Belle, you are not only helping the environment, you are also providing employment for the families in third world countries who breed and raise these delicate creatures. Love that.

8 Comments
  • Connie @ Daydream In Color

    September 29, 2011 at 10:19 am Reply

    Aww! My BF got me one of these for a Christmas present one year & they are gorgeous! I love it.

  • adele

    September 29, 2011 at 10:40 am Reply

    I love butterflies – these are gorgeous xoxo
    http://www.intotheblonde.com/

  • amy b.s.

    September 29, 2011 at 11:07 am Reply

    how cool! i actually have a butterfly wing similar to this and love it. so pretty.

  • JT

    September 29, 2011 at 11:26 am Reply

    Might be a stupid question, but do they kill them to get the wings then?

  • Danielle (elleinadspir)

    September 29, 2011 at 12:13 pm Reply

    Beautiful!

  • AB

    September 30, 2011 at 5:52 pm Reply

    Yes. They kill the butterflies in order to take the wings.

    If you go to their website you will find an article that explains why do they “ranch” or harvest the butterflies. I guess the matter is far more complicated than what I expected.

  • Kelly

    October 1, 2011 at 9:47 am Reply

    Here’s the explanation from the artist, Audrey:

    The organisation I source my butterflies from work closely with local governments to set up breeding programs for two reasons:
    1. To help increase the populations of butterfly species where deforestation threatens their habitat and therefore their numbers
    2. To create an opportunity for native people to make a living without destroying the local rain forests on their land.

    The butterflies that are sold have to be caught as the wings are very delicate and the farmers won’t be able to sell the damaged wings from naturally expired butterflies. The money generated through the sales of these butterflies is what enables the farmers to conserve the rain forests on their land. At the same time the populations of these butterflies are conserved as a portion are released back into the wild.

    It is important to remember that butterflies only live between a day and 4 weeks and, unlike vertebrae, they are not reproductively challenged (a single butterfly will lay up to 500 eggs at a time). Their only real challenge is lack of habitat, as they are very selective about what they can eat. This makes the farming projects crucial to the survival of a lot of these species, especially in countries like Indonesia where they have the highest carbon footprint in the world due to illegal logging and deforestation. The organisation I support started a foundation that does a lot of work with the government in Indonesia to educate farmers on the benefits of butterfly breeding as opposed to growing mono-cultural crops. You can read more about this on their website: http://theantennaefoundation.org/content/244892

  • RC

    October 3, 2011 at 9:37 am Reply

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