Oct.3.2026 Butterfly ATC #3

This butterfly ATC was lovingly etched and printed outdoors on 10/03/2026.

The intention of this design is to celebrate shaping your own new beginnings. Butterflies symbolize starting over or becoming something new, and the tiny stars on the top wings are a nod to magic and whimsy. The stars blend in like normal butterfly details but they’re not a mark that comes naturally on butterfly wings in the wild. These coded details mirror the feeling of awe that I’ve had in my own life lately- awe that I have the ability to infuse my life with my own magic, one little transition at a time.

To create the prints, I first etched the design onto a Tetrapak plate (tetrapak = a cut up milk carton) using a needle tool from my ceramics kit and a small pen knife. Then, I set up my mini pasta maker press on a picnic table and printed the plate several times onto a heavyweight watercolour paper using Canadian-made acrylic block printing ink.

Each of these prints is a little different, with some that are lighter and more crisp and others that have organic splotches made from when ink danced with extra water. I even added some colourful painted details to a few of the prints as a further expression of the playfulness I felt throughout this print process. For the most part, these variations were more experimental than intentional but like always, meaning always seemed to take shape anyways when I sat with the finished set.

Now, the best part about art is that the meaning I’ve infused into these prints can be different than what you see in them. If they resonate with you, for whatever reason, I invite you to adopt one! These can be shipped via lettermail to anywhere in Canada or the US <3