Today we’d like to introduce you to Beth Watson.
Hi Beth, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in Nashville, TN but did most of my growing up in & around the Bulloch County, GA area. Savannah has always held a special place in my heart, though. It was always the place we went to have fun.
It’s STILL the place I go to have fun. Anyway, after my growing up years in the deep south I bounced around between Germany and up & down the east coast for the next 20 or so years, finally landing back in my home state about 10 years ago. And THAT would mark the beginning of my butterfly pinning/collecting odyssey…
It was in a little shop off Decatur Street in New Orleans that the idea of MyMy Butterfly first sprouted wings. I’d found a wall completely dedicated to the most beautiful butterflies and some of the weirdest insects from all around the world. They were in simple black wooden frames. But wow!
Those butterflies were the obvious main focus. Now, I’ve also always been interested in Victorian Age history, memento mori, spiritualism, etc. I also knew a bit about their interest in butterflies and thought this was an excellent opportunity to delve a little deeper into that history and create something I could share with other people.
So, I promised myself that when I got home I would figure out how to spread and pin butterflies… Five years later, all the hard work, broken wings, and more than a few frustrated tears, here I am! MyMy Butterfly has taken off like a newly emerged Luna Moth, though I’d surely like to stick around for a bit longer than those little guys do!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think the biggest hurdle/struggle has been getting past my fear of touching bugs other than butterflies and moths. But a good pair of rubber gloves pretty much solved all my worries there!
Honestly, though, I’d have to say COVID definitely put the largest damper on my business in 2020-21. With the world shutting down and all my in-person events being canceled, I had to learn the fine art of the pivot. And so I set up my very first online shop! mymybutterfly.com
Obviously, I’m not much of a computer person, so you can imagine it was quite the adventure. I thank my boyfriend for helping me throughout that, very painful at times, process.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I rehydrate, pin, and mount all sorts of insects in frames and glass-topped domes usually in nature-type scenes. For the framed pieces, I really enjoy using my own photography as the background. So anytime you see one of my bugs framed against an actual photo, that’s my art on my art!
I’m particularly proud of the work that I did for the HBO series Lovecraft Country a few years ago. That amazing opportunity allowed to me get out of my comfort zone and just make some really fantastical and spectacular pieces with a huge variety of insects. They even brought some of my butterflies to life in one of the episodes!
It feels like everyone learned and/or honed a skill during all the lockdowns. With folks wanting to connect with nature more during that time, I’m finding that butterfly pinning has definitely been a popular skill to learn.
But what I think sets me apart from a hobbyist is that I love every aspect of what I do-from poring over lists of insects with no reference pics to painstakingly gluing antennas and repairing torn wings to nervously standing around in ginormous convention centers, hoping that folks might be interested in my work enough to stop for a minute.
Every tiny bit just amazes me and keeps me going.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
One of my favorite childhood memories has to be when my little brother and I would go to a creek down the road from our house.
We’d spend days wading through the water, lifting rocks oh-so-carefully to catch a glimpse of the crawdads underneath.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://mymybutterfly.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mymy_butterfly/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/postmymybutterfly/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mymybutterfly_
