A swarm set at the height people walk through
Most animal lanterns sit on the ground and ask visitors to look down or across. This swarm does the opposite. The butterflies are built at visitor height, wings spread and open, so someone walking a garden path passes directly through the cluster rather than viewing it from a distance. That changes the photograph. Instead of a scene to observe, the piece becomes something you stand inside, and the gradient-lit wings glow around the visitor rather than in front of them.
The hard part is the wing gradient
A butterfly wing is not one colour. It runs from a saturated body edge out to a pale or translucent tip, and light has to move through that range without breaking into bands. We build each wing as a separate gradient panel and light it as its own zone, so the colour can fade from root to tip the way a real wing does. The panels are satin silk, fire-retardant, hand-painted per butterfly, and the translucency is what lets the LED behind it read as a living wing rather than a flat cut-out.
Reading the swarm from a distance
Because the butterflies sit low and glow, they act as a marker on a long path. A visitor sees the colour from far off, walks toward it, and only notices the individual species once close. The swarm is arranged so the wings overlap without colliding, which keeps each butterfly recognisable and stops the group from becoming a single glowing blob. At night the gradient is the only thing carrying the form, so the painting has to be right before the lights go on.
Placing it where people pause
This piece suits garden trails, entrance features and the approach to a larger display, anywhere a path naturally slows. It is built in the Zigong workshop to your dimensions on the XL-AN series, 0.6 to 6 m class, and the low height means it needs less clearance than a tall figure. The set arrives with layout drawings and a wiring schedule, and we can either send an installation team or support your own crew by video call.
