I made this collection of butterfly sculptures to show that something small and frail, which you would never expect to hurt you, can be malicious and traumatizing. I wanted to depict the butterflies out of bright colors and knew that soda cans would be perfect. Each material that was used is something that is not made to cause harm, but easily can. The forks and soda cans can easily physically harm you, even if it isn’t supposed to. Soda as a whole can be dangerous if over consumed and media like music can spread harmful messages. I was inspired to make these butterflies because it is important to remember that even people who you expect could never hurt you might cause problems in your life.

To make the butterflies, I drew a sketch of the shape of each wing and then cut cans and used hot glue to attach the pieces to the paper shape. The hot glue caused a lot of problems when heating the cans, and the overall heat caused dried glue to melt again. It was a learning experience to work with these materials together. The forks were bent using pliers and a hammer, and it was honestly easier than expected. 

The butterflies are colorful and create an interesting reflection with light on their own, but together they are a full collection that could easily be built upon.