Now taking waitlist The Pinning Experience  —  Beer, wine & soft drinks · Specimens · Shadow box · Orange County CA Join the waitlist →
Free education · Butterfly & insect preservation · Orange County, CA

Learn to preserve
the beautiful things.

Dead, but darling.

Pretty Dead Things is the beginner-friendly guide to butterfly pinning and insect preservation. Real education, nothing held back, one specimen at a time. Everything here is free.

Get the Free Sourcing Guide See the Curriculum
Free forever
Sustainably sourced
Beginner-friendly
Classes
starting soon Get on
the list. Join waitlist →
10
Lessons in the series
0
Experience required
100%
Sustainably sourced
1
New specimen every class
Pretty Dead Things

Everything in one place.

Free education, in-person classes, beginner kits, sourcing guides, and the story behind it all.

Free

Beginner Series

Ten lessons from sourcing your first specimen to displaying the finished piece. Start from zero.

Start learning →
Now taking waitlist

Pop-Up Classes

An evening of beer, wine, soft drinks, real specimens, and Rae. You leave with a shadow box you made.

Get on the waitlist →
Free resource

Sourcing Guide

Where to buy butterflies and moths. Quality grades, red flags, trusted suppliers. No guessing.

Read the guide →
Coming soon

Beginner Kit

Everything you need to pin your first specimen. Curated. Nothing missing, nothing extra.

Get notified →
Blog

The Chronicles

The real story behind building Pretty Dead Things. Process, goals, life between the specimens.

Read the chronicles →
The person behind it

About Rae

Why this exists. Who built it. Where it's going. Preservation as a practice and a life.

Read her story →
Orange County, CA  ·  Now taking waitlist

You should be in this room.
Get on the list.

A small-group butterfly pinning experience. You spend an evening with beer, wine & soft drinks, a real specimen, and Rae — and leave with a finished piece you made yourself. Sessions sell out. The waitlist goes first.

Real specimen to pin Beer & wine included All supplies provided Shadow box to take home Taught by Rae
Get on the Waitlist

Dates go to the list first  —  no public sales until it fills

Rae — founder of Pretty Dead Things
↳ Rae · Orange County, CA
Why Pretty Dead Things exists

The place I wish
existed when I started.

Being new shouldn't be embarrassing. You should be able to ask the question you think you're supposed to already know. Information shouldn't be gatekept. And you shouldn't have to piece together twelve mediocre tutorials to figure out one basic technique.

The information I share here will always be free. I mean that. I'm not going to teach you half of something and put the part you actually needed behind a paywall.

You can buy my art. You can come to a class. But you will never have to pay me just to learn from me.

Read my story →
What's coming

The rooms that come next.

The curriculum is the foundation. These are the sections being built around it — a full ecosystem for everyone who finds the strange things the prettiest.

◈

The Reanimation Station

Broken antennae. Crooked specimens. Wing repairs. Mistakes are part of the process — here's how to fix them.

Coming soon
◈

The Pinning Table

Community Q&A. Real beginner questions answered the way they should be.

Coming soon
◈

Beginner Kits

Everything you need to pin your first specimen, curated so you don't have to guess what to buy.

Coming soon
◈

Challenges & Community

Pin-alongs, follower submissions, and a space for people who find the strange things the prettiest.

Coming soon
✦

The Butterfly Farm

Breeding, life cycles, sourcing from the source. The farm is being built — watch it happen here.

Coming soon
◈

The Pop-Up Experience

Hands-on butterfly pinning in Orange County. Pin a real specimen. Take home a finished shadow box.

Join waitlist →
Community challenge

The First Pin Challenge.

Pin your first butterfly or moth, post it, and tag @prettydeadthings_studio. No experience required. No perfect spread required. Just your first one — exactly as it came out.

01

Pin your first specimen

Follow the free curriculum. Grab a Blue Morpho or any beginner species. Pin it. Doesn’t have to be perfect — it just has to be yours.

02

Post it

Photo or video. Show the spread, the board, the whole setup. The messy ones are the best ones.

03

Tag us

Tag @prettydeadthings_studio on Instagram or @prettydeadthingsstudio on TikTok. We feature every single one.

See the challenge on Instagram →
Follower highlights

Your first pins.

Real beginners. Real first spreads. Tagged @prettydeadthings_studio — and featured here.

Tag your first pin @prettydeadthings_studio — featured submissions coming soon.

Follow on Instagram →
Don't miss a lesson

Join the free curriculum.

New lessons, studio updates, and resources — delivered to your inbox. No selling. No spam. Just preservation.

Free forever. Unsubscribe any time.

Follow us

Follow our socials.

The website is the curriculum. Social is where it happens in real time — specimens, pinning sessions, mistakes, fixes, and class announcements. Follow both so you don’t miss a drop.