Woman sees beauty in dead spotted lanternflies, turns their remains into jewelry

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Images via Candice Jeffries.

As dead spotted lanternflies keep piling up, one Philadelphia woman has found a way to make use of their remains by turning them into jewelry, writes Victor Fiorillo for Philadelphia magazine.

Candice Jeffries, a visual anthropology graduate of Temple University, knew she wanted to make spotted lanternfly jewelry from the moment she first saw the insect at the Philadelphia Folk Festival in Montgomery County three years ago.

“I had never seen anything like it before,” said Jeffries. “They’re just so beautiful. And I have the urge to make wearable art out of nature.”

With no supply of the pest at her Cobbs Creek home, Jeffries found the spotted lanternflies she uses for creating her earrings at the Lower Merion Conservancy, where she teaches youngsters about watersheds.

“I just squish them and then clip off their wings,” she said.

She then coats the wings in a laminating material and attaches them to fasteners. She sells the final product at local festivals and on her Etsy shop for $28 a pair. In the future, she also plans to experiment with silver and other materials.

Read more about spotted lanternfly jewelry in Philadelphia magazine here.

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