Monarch butterflies are one of nature’s true marvels, their gorgeous stained-glass wings carry them each year along their migratory route from Canada to Mexico. These butterflies hold strong aesthetic and scientific significance, from the secrets of how the monarch caterpillars sequester toxins they eat within their tissues without themselves being poisoned to the beauty and lessons we can learn about aeronautics and navigation from the long journey the adults undertake.
Monarch butterflies savor the warmer weather of Mexico during the cold winter months, while enjoying the cooler weather of North America during the summer months where they raise their young, lovingly laying their eggs on the only plants their caterpillars can eat, milkweed. Besides providing vital nutrients, milkweed plants transfer their toxins to the young caterpillars, which these baby butterflies then use to make themselves toxic to predators. Even with this ingenious defense, these stunning butterflies are dwindling due in large part to lack of milkweed plants that are necessary for caterpillars to survive.
The Monarch Collection from Insect Diva is geared at trying to reverse this trend, and all profits are going towards the Insect Diva Monarch Conservation Project to plant vital milkweed and floral sources to support the Atlantic Coast Migratory route of our monarch butterflies. The collection features real flower pendants preserved in resin and American made brass monarch butterflies hand painted and incorporated into elegant necklaces, earrings, brooches and sunglasses. I hope you love this collection and gift yourself or someone you care about with these handmade treasures that also help conserve our environment.
This project is especially close to my heart because I grew up along the Atlantic Coast migration route of these beautiful butterflies, and used to delight in seeing them every summer as they returned from Mexico.

Over the years however the monarch butterflies became fewer and fewer in the area, until I did not see any. So I decided to do something about it and started clearing and planting land with milkweed, the vital monarch caterpillar host plant. I also began rearing and releasing monarch caterpillars into the wild to help revitalize the dwindling populations of these butterflies along the Atlantic Coast. Your purchases of The Monarch Collection helps fund the growing and maintaining of milkweed plants and other floral sources to support the Atlantic Coast monarch populations. And I am delighted to share that after our first year with this project we are already seeing great success! Healthy and abundant monarch populations have already began recolonizing this area along the Atlantic Coast. Through your support, we hope to conserve the scientific and cultural wonder of these butterflies for generations to come!