By Carol Felixson
Special to The Times

November 2, 2003

Have whispers of wings and flashes of color ever surprised you? If so, you may have been visited by butterflies! Sisters Jamie , 8, and Erin, 5, planted a butterfly garden at their home. They have made this illustration using dried flowers arranged around crayon drawings of a butterfly common to this area called the California Sister.

"Butterflies are found almost anywhere," explains Erin, "but especially in gardens where the plants have colorful flowers with a strong fragrance and nectar." She says it's also good if gardens have leafy food for the caterpillars. Her garden at home has milkweed, lantana, butterfly bush and other plants that butterflies like. It has sunny areas where butterflies can warm their wings and are protected from the wind, and mud puddles where they like to drink water.

Jamie first sketched and then crayoned two butterflies on a piece of paper. In the butterfly on the right, she shows the upper side of its wings. The wings are bright orange near the tips and have a white band that winds around both sides. The underside of a wing is shown in the other butterfly. Jamie says she found out that a butterfly's pretty patterns and bright colors help to camouflage it from predators.

The flower art was done in stages. Drying the flowers required adult supervision. Erin says she first placed the freshly picked flowers between layers of newspaper. After preheating the oven to 200 degrees, the heat was turned off. The flowers — still layered in newspaper — were put in the oven to dry overnight. "When we removed the flowers we had to handle them very gently so they wouldn't break," added Jamie.

Erin carefully put glue on the backs of the flower stems and petals and then placed them around the butterfly drawings. She also added a crayoned caterpillar to one of the leaves. Can you find it? Once finished, Jamie and Erin let their flower art dry in a safe place away from kitties, puppies and other playful creatures — even butterflies!

Good job, girls!

About the series: Carol Felixson introduces children to a subject from nature and an art technique. The children then apply what they have learned in an illustration. She plans and reports on a different project each month. Felixson is director of education and community outreach for UCLA's Stunt Ranch Reserve and Mathias Botanical Garden. Previous projects can be seen at nrs.ucop.edu/Reserves/stunt/newsforkids.html. Dec. 7 lesson: leaves and rubbings!




Copyright 2003 Los Angeles Times