You know the June bug... it comes out around this time every year to fly recklessly into anything and everything, and if you're lucky, attach itself to you while you run around in dire straits, desperately trying to detach it from yourself.
I've never really been a fan. They used to weird me out to the max, but one day while researching scarabs (as one does ;) I learned that what we call the June bug here in south Louisiana is actually a member of the subfamily Melolonthinae (family Scarabaeidae, order Coleoptera). How neat is that? So I dug deeper... I found out that the June bug I know is a little brown beetle, but to folks in North Carolina when they say June bug they're referring to another member of the Scarabaeidae family that is green, and in Arizona they refer to a totally different green beetle with the same June bug name.
I found all of that especially interesting since I have a brain full of the Latin plant names I had to learn in landscape architecture for that exact reason.
I had to know more about this clumsy, mysterious little beetle that lives most of its life underground. Turns out it's born underground, lives there for about 3 years, emerges in the summer as an adult, goes back underground, then comes back out the next spring and lives out the rest of its little life above ground nocturnal and seeking light.
In ancient Egypt, scarab beetles were a symbol of resurrection (something to do with them coming out of the ground then returning and rising again), transformation (larvae to beetle) and protection (I suppose this has to do with their thick candy shell ;)
But it's the beetle's lesson of transformation and adaptation that gets me. Like the butterfly, they go through a metamorphosis throughout their short life, quietly embracing the change, transitions, and surrendering to the process.
My obvious next step: to create a piece I'm calling the Southern Scarab (one that doesn't send you into hysteria when it's stuck on you ;) A wearable reminder of these beetles and all the symbols and story they're packed with.
As a lover of light, I went ahead and paid homage to that with a sun and its rays on the back.
Measures approximately 1/2" wide 3/4" head to bottom. Not sure about your ring size? Click Here!
Made by hand in our south Louisiana studio.
Each piece varies slightly due to its handmade nature.
