Perfect Specimens
New jewelry line takes flight
Local professional painter DARREN MULVENNA and artist ANDREA HAMMOND have teamed up to launch their up-and-coming company Bug Out Jewelry, creating hand-painted butterfly earrings.
The duo has only worked together for about three months, and they’re already getting encouraging responses.
Mulvenna, the original mastermind behind the project, enjoys painting butterflies in his fine artwork. He had the idea for the earrings after a trip he took to San Francisco and the city’s Butterfly Conservatory at the Museum of Natural History.
“My vision about it is to take the design that is in nature and take the pattern, then incorporate that in the earrings,” Mulvenna says. “(Butterfly wings) are all different patterns. They’re a work of art themselves.”
He asked his friend of five years to help him take on the endeavor, knowing that Hammond has sold her own jewelry online and at festivals.
Right now, most of the earrings are Monarch designs painted on lightweight leather, but the team is experimenting with other materials such as canvas, which allows them to paint with more colors, Hammond says.
The jewelry line MIMICRY is sold at Grinder's Caffé, Velvet Freeze, and The Art Factory in Wilmington, and the company plans to have its website (bugoutjewelry.com) ready in July. Mulvenna hopes to work with area boutiques, then move on to sell the product in Charleston, South Carolina.
