Crystal butterflies

What if butterflies were really made out of sparkling jewels and crystals, inlaid with silver and gold?

I've always been fascinated by the way light is reflected and refracted by coloured glass and metal, and how is it that our eyes immediately recognise what we're seeing as being faceted cut crystal, shiny metal or mirror-finish chrome. What is about those materials that tells us "that's a jewel" or "that's gold". Then when somebody mentioned butterflies as being "jewel-bright" it got me thinking: what if they really were made out of jewels and precious metals, something that might have been made by Faberge? To achieve the vibrant colours that I was imagining my first choice was oil paint. It certainly did that but the process was extremely time consuming and fiddly. My next choice was coloured pencil which proved ideal for getting not only the vibrancy but also the fine lines that the butterflies needed. Each drawing is done on smooth paper using a range of pencils, from soft to hard, and about 80 different colours