Butterflies in the Dreaming Room

Today I get to reveal to you the project I've been working on, on-and-off, for a little while for the Dreaming Room!

I was utterly inspired by artist Mia Araujo's photos from an art installation she made for her artworks. She and her sister cut pages from old books into the shape of butterflies, and suspended them from wires on the ceiling. The effect was so stunning, I really wanted to do something similar for the Dreaming Room. It's the room where I go to read, create, and imagine, so it was perfect.

However, my original idea of hanging the butterflies from string wouldn't work, I realized, because in the warm weather, the ceiling fan simply *must* be on if you're in the room. Cape Cod upper levels get warm, even with air conditioning, and string + breeze = tangled mess. I mentioned this to my friend Andy when he was visiting, and he suggested I adhere them directly to the branches I had planned to use as bases for mobiles, rather than dangling them from string below.


I don't have nearly as many butterflies as her installation...yet....but I do have quite a few still cut out and uncolored to work on over time. I also want to invite any guests who visit Catty-Corner (since the Dreaming Room is also our guest bedroom) to color in a butterfly if they so desire.

Each butterfly is completely unique. Thank goodness for library books with images of all the different varieties. The shapes were cut by me, and then the designs were done with colored pencil (usually while we were watching tv). The pages are from an old book on the War of the Roses, I believe, full of wonderfully romantic words.


The butterflies are attached to the branches with glue dots. So far a couple of them have fallen down, but hopefully I can get them all adhered solidly.


There are almost 30 butterflies on the branches so far, and I can continue hanging more of them over time. When I run out of room on the branches, I can suspend a few from wires below them.

I still have some of the pages I cut the butterflies from, and I plan to back them with colored paper, and frame them on a wall near the branches.