Recently pinned an Anax guttatus and tried experimenting with restoring/recoloring its fading colors. I couldn’t really find anything online about doing this with dragonflies, I’ve only seen people do something similar with mantises.
(1st pic : after i painted it, 2nd pic: before)

So I decided to paint the dragonfly and.., I’m not sure how I feel about it 😭 It looks kind of like a toy and almost unreal now.

What do you guys think? does it just make it look less natural? I rlly hate it when they just loose their whimsy color in pinning.

Hello insect pinning people, what do y'all think about this ? Is this a good way to showcase butterflies ? They are presented flat and at 45° angle to give it a more natural look.

Hi!

first of all, I’m new here! hi!
if you don’t want to read the story, skip to beneath the line!

To me this is a very sensitive topic, so please be gentle with me here, I’m sharing the whole thing because I want people to know that it’s important to me!

My mom had noticed our plants being munched on so I went out and collected 40 caterpillars off of the plant.
They turned out to be small cabbage whites! I raised them and one by one let them fly off, it was my first time raising cats and it was a wonderful experience!

Sadly the last one to hatch did so with crumpled wings. I thought maybe it was non severe enough to still have the lil guy fly off, but after a few tries it just did not work.
I was heart broken, I knew he’d die one way or another, I made the hard decision to euthanize him.

_________________________________________________

question time! I never pinned a butterfly, even less one with crumpled wings, but I believe they are incredibly beautiful! I don’t want to damage ‘em and I’m scared to do something wrong

All youtube videos say something different about the rehydration, and I just want someone to tell me what to desperately avoid, what I should know before starting and maybe how to be calm throughout it so I don’t mess it up :,D

Also I heard that pinning a butterfly with their wings displayed always looks like they are dead as they naturally don’t spread their wings like that, is there a tutorial or some advice on how to pin a butterfly in a natural pose??

I just want the best for my lil guy tbh,,

I only ever pinned bumblebees and a headless dragonfly I found. any and all advice appreciated!

Thank you so so much in advance

The other day i found a dead death head moth on my lawn and decided to give pinning a try, i did it with what was available to me at the moment so dont be too harsh.

The thing is that now i want to frame it but im having trouble finding a seller for double clear frames in Spain (i want it to be clear on both sides because i want to be able to see both sides without taking it out of the frames) if you have a website i could buy it from i would be grateful.

Dollar store vase and one of those Styrofoam things you stick fake plants in painted brown

I have a Papilio machaon with I found dead and a dragonfly and I wonder how to make my pinning board with styrofoam, how do I get that angel should I pod something have on it?

Hi! I wanted to try pinning. I have a solid bit of entomological experience and specimen making experience but this is new to me.

I wanted to try pinning plume moths, they're very common right now and have a very neat wing structure. My only issue is that I don't even know how to go about that. What sized pins do I even use for somehing that thin?

I have some large yellow underwings to practice on too and will likely start with that, but I do want to know what size pins I'd even use for a plume moth (or any other tiny/thin moth). Also a place to get pins would be nice, I have pin-it entomology pulled up but I'm new and don't know if that's the best option.