If your New Year’s resolution was to take on a new hobby and you’re looking for something that combines nature and art (and aren’t particularly squeamish), Hail Dark Aesthetics might have just the thing.
Collecting and mounting butterflies and moths takes a delicate hand, but the shop will have experts at their upcoming workshops to help guide you — don’t worry if you’re a nervous beginner; they will even have some OK-to-break practice specimens.
For the main mounting projects, the workshops will be using Urania Sunset Moths — beautifully colored, feathery, flying insects. The event is a part of a critter-mounting series at Hail Dark Aesthetics hosted by Meddling with Nature, a group that, according to its Facebook description, is “dedicated to exploring the connection between art and natural science” (find more on the collective at meddlingwithnature.com).
In February, Hail hosts similar workshops for beetle and scorpion mounting.
The 6 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 26 workshop is sold out; 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 27. $65 (one seat; one critter); $110 (two seats; two critters). Hail Dark Aesthetics, 720 Main St., Covington, hailcincinnati.com.
