China Aster Specimen Study

Real hydrangea florets in a hand-polished resin sphere, 2.75 in across. The blue holds — it doesn't brown the way dried flowers do.

A real dandelion seed head caught whole in a resin sphere, seeds held mid-drift. 2.75 in across and heavier than it looks — it's a paperweight, not an ornament.

A real pansy pressed into clear resin, dark center and all. 1.5 in square and half an inch thick — the smallest of the studies, sized to sit in the palm.

A brass handle cast as a branch, holding a 2.56 in lens. 9.25 in long, made in Uttar Pradesh. Decorative, but it genuinely magnifies.

A real swallowtail, wings open in clear resin, the scales still holding their cream and dark banding. 3 in square, an inch deep. No two wing patterns match.

Eleven things in one block — egg, larva, pupa; queen, worker, drone; comb in two forms, a queen cell, beeswax and honey. Real specimens set by hand, like an old teaching cabinet. 5.5 in wide, the largest of the studies.

A real chafer beetle in hand-polished resin, wing cases still green and shifting in the light. 73 x 41 x 20 mm — the smallest of the insect studies.

Fourteen varieties — black-eyed Susan, purple coneflower, scarlet flax, Mexican hat, perennial lupine and more. Non-GMO, open-pollinated. Reusable recycled-steel tin, 2 in across, directions inside.