Teal Butterflies

A rich teal version of my spiralling butterfly artwork, inspired by a £40 old table decorated with rice-paper butterflies and resin, a little piece of a much-loved memory given a new life. Postage is just £3.95 per order, no matter how many mugs you buy.

Category: Mugs

Teal Butterflies. Original artwork by Julia Griffith.

This design comes from the same butterfly artwork that began life on an old round kitchen table I bought for about £40 at a garden-centre closing sale.

My first idea for the table was completely different and involved a very laborious pattern of blue circles. Eventually I abandoned that plan and used delicate rice-paper butterflies instead, sealing them into the surface with resin.

I arranged the butterflies almost like a cloud or spiral, starting with tiny butterflies in the centre so they looked far away, then gradually making them larger as they came towards you. For the mug design, I reworked that idea into two overlapping spirals so the butterflies seem to sweep around the cup.

The teal background gives this version a richer, more dramatic feel than the white-background design, but it is still the same artwork and the same memory behind it.

A Note from the Artist:

That old table eventually went off with my sons when they left home but sadly it didn’t survive them. So in a funny way, these mugs have become a little way of keeping it.

The butterflies always made me happy and I love the fact that something which started as a £40 second-hand table has ended up living on in a completely different form.