Move over “Live Laugh Love” sign and “Tournée du Chat Noir” poster. More and more people want dead bugs on their walls, albeit in tasteful frames and poses.
That’s what Morgan Loftin reports. She and her husband Micah run Pinned Pterra, a company in Denton that specializes in pinned butterfly specimens. The couple are homeowners, solid citizens and Christians. They just happen to love butterflies and make a living mounting dead ones for sale.
Surprisingly, they have an equally mainstream clientele.
“I don’t think we need to bejewel them or add bones or make it dark,” says Loftin. “They are so beautiful that you can appreciate them in a scientific way. We get clients that are gothic and witchy, and they’ll buy a huge beetle, death’s head moth or a spider because they like our simple style. We also get, like, Chip and Joanna Gaines modern farmhouse types that want a white frame that can go anywhere.”
The Loftins’ style is quite modernist. They highlight the beauty of their insects, mostly butterflies, with simple white or black frames. The stark settings allow the colors of the animals to shine through. Even comparatively drab insects like stick bugs look vibrant, set against snow-white panels.
An appreciation for natural beauty is what got the Loftins interested in the first place. In February 2021, they were visiting a butterfly conservatory in the Florida Keys when a butterfly landed on Morgan, and she fell in love with it. When they exited the gift shop, a variety of mounted insects were available to sell, but not this specific species. Undeterred, Micah identified the butterfly online and ordered one from Europe. Unfortunately, it arrived simply folded up in a box, nothing more than a carefully packed corpse with little of the majesty left.
“Micah started watching YouTube videos about insect taxidermy and presented it to me,” says Loftin. “He was so proud.”
Morgan Loftin had always been crafty, and with Micah’s newfound knowledge, they made a few more framed butterflies to sell at the Denton Community Market. She didn’t expect much.
