Jeweller Mikel Lefler’s “Resinology” runs March 6 – March 31 at the Circle Craft Shop & Gallery in Granville Island’s Net Loft.

Mikel Lefler has been designing jewellery since 1999. As she was finishing her Bachelor of Science degree at Simon Fraser University she took an entomology course and fell in love with the beauty of insects. She started working in a honeybee research lab and cast resin embedded with insects. Her father taught her the process of working with resin, which he has been perfecting for the last thirty years. She took silversmithing classes and combined the art of casting resin with silversmithing to create her line of insect jewellery.

“As a West Coast artist I have been developing my particular, peculiar craft for the last seven years,” says Lefler. “I use a fascinating variety of insects including dragonflies, butterflies, beetles, wasps and spiders (which are not actually insects). I continue to collect many specimens on my own as well as obtaining specimens from around the world, being careful not to collect anything endangered or threatened.”

For the upcoming exhibit at Circle Craft Gallery, Lefler will be showing works she’s created with different types of resin and different techniques. Most of the work will contain insects in whole or in part, but some of her pieces will be strictly in resin and pigment alone. The show will include all types of jewellery: pendants, earrings, rings, bracelets, brooches and cufflinks as well as a few other more sculptural pieces.

More info about Mikel Lefler and her work at: www.bijouxdumonde.net

Click here to read Thelma's gallery review with this month's guest writer Sean Goddard.