1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.

I am an entomologist (ant lover) who spreads, preserves and often animates beautiful farm raised insects displayed in wood shadowboxes. The insect world has always mesmerized me with its countless shapes, colors, bizarre behaviors and environmental importance and I just finished a Masters in conservation biology.

Bug Under Glass started about 8 years ago when I was making various bug shadowboxes for friend’s weddings and an old roommate invited me to share a table with her at a holiday craft show. I sold everything and this launched my craft business. This moment also changed my life because I knew from that point on that I could work with my passion (insects) and be crafty for the rest of my life, no matter what job I took.

2. What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting?

My main hobbies when I was younger were stamp collecting, bug collecting and building models for my model train set. I was a total dork and still am. I still love anything miniature and trying to fit insects into that world.

3. What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them?

I am always coming up with wonderful new ideas and usually motivate to make it right away when the idea is small. However, I do have a problem with bigger ideas as I have a lot of half-finished scenes sitting in my room waiting to be finished. There is one poor beetle who has been sitting in an empty miniature bathtub waiting for some props and furniture for his shadowbox for over a year.

4. Are you super organized or messy? What does your workspace look like?

My workspace is what I like to call ‘organized chaos’. I am a very organized person myself but since I work with a lot of very small things my workspace has lots of cabinets with tiny drawers filled with stamps, old currency, dollhouse miniatures and lots and lots of insects. Most of my drawers are labeled correctly but there are still lots of surprises.

5. Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?

Every year I try to add more bugs and update my business plan. By the end of next year, I want to have a DIY section where you can pick from a stock of butterflies/beetles and create your own display. You can do that now, but you have to come over to my house for that instead of the comfort of your own home.

You can find more of Kevin;s work at http://bugunderglass.com/