Behind the Booth: From Colombia to Alberta, one family’s butterfly business takes flight

For Nora Muñoz-Meneses, what began as a family craft in Popayán, Colombia, has become something much bigger than a jewellery business.

Her Edmonton-based company, Monarca, transforms naturally expired butterfly wings into handmade earrings, necklaces, pendants, and displays. The wings come from licensed breeders, sanctuaries, nature centres, and conservatories, rather than being collected from living butterflies.

The story began with Nora’s sisters in Colombia. One made floral jewellery, while another, who was studying biology, began experimenting with techniques for preserving butterfly wings.

“I like to learn,” Nora said. “I helped them a bit with the flowers and with the butterflies, just as a hobby.”

She learned the techniques from her sisters and eventually brought that knowledge with her to Canada, when Nora moved with her husband in 2016. Five years later, during the pandemic, she decided to bring the family business with her.

“I had time to craft,” she said.

Her first Canadian opportunity came at an expo held by the Colombian Consulate in Calgary. From there, support from Action for Healthy Communities and opportunities through 124 Grand Market helped her learn something completely new: how to turn a family craft into a business.

“I didn’t have an idea of how to do business,” she said. “It was like building step-by-step, how to find my brand identity, how to find the right audience, how to find the right market.”

Those early opportunities gave Nora free market dates where she could test her products and learn what customers responded to. She says she gradually figured out which designs, colours, and sizes worked best for the Alberta market.

Today, blue butterfly pieces are among her most popular products. Nora says she has tried many species, but blue morpho butterflies and Ulysses butterflies consistently attract customers. She also considers size when deciding what to order, with medium-sized pieces tending to be popular in Alberta and larger sizes in America.

The butterflies are raised in controlled environments, and portions of the populations are released while butterflies that die naturally can be sold through the regulated supply chain.

That distinction is especially important when it comes to monarch butterflies.

Nora says the monarchs she uses come from non-migratory populations in tropical areas of South and Central America, rather than the migratory population associated with Mexico. She says her suppliers provide the necessary licences and certificates and that the species she works with are not from protected or endangered populations.

“There are a lot of different species and populations, and plenty of non-endangered monarch butterflies,” she said. “I always make sure.”

At markets, people are frequently intrigued when they see the words “real butterfly wings” on her display. Nora says customers usually want to know where the wings came from and whether the butterflies were harmed.

She is happy to explain.

Once the wings arrive, the creative process begins.

The fragile wings can be cut and incorporated into different pieces. Nora sometimes places smaller sections under glass or inside a locket, securing them with glue. Other wings are left uncovered, depending on the design.

For particularly well-preserved butterflies, she uses the entire specimen. She pins and spreads the butterfly to create shadow boxes and other displays.

The wings are extremely delicate.

“I usually live in a fast-paced environment,” Nora said. “And now I have to be patient.”

She also tries to make use of every viable piece. When wings are damaged or too small for larger jewellery designs, she can use fragments in other creations, including collages.

Nora typically orders butterflies in small batches, around 10 at a time, depending on how her sales and upcoming markets are going. She then works through the supply based on what customers are responding to.

The process is deliberately hands-on. Unlike mass-produced jewellery, every butterfly wing has its own pattern, shape, and imperfections.

But Nora says she never expected the pieces to carry quite so much emotional weight.

“I am sometimes surprised at how meaningful a butterfly can be for a person,” she said.

One customer found a butterfly necklace that reminded her of an important chapter in her life. After the necklace became damaged, Nora offered to replace the butterfly wing for free. The customer wanted to keep the damaged original. Nora carefully removed it and gave it back to her.

She then made a new necklace in a different, richer colour. The old piece represented what the customer had been through. The new one represented the next chapter of her life.

For Nora, the moment showed her that customers were not simply buying jewellery. They were sometimes buying a physical reminder of something they had experienced, survived or wanted to celebrate.

Another customer told Nora that, on her first birthday after losing her husband, a butterfly had landed on her.

Nora told her, “Maybe someone was trying to say happy birthday to you.”

The woman hugged her.

“She said, ‘I thought the same, but I wanted someone to reassure me.’”

Those encounters have become part of what keeps Nora returning to markets.

“I didn’t expect to be part of those human experiences.”

The name Monarca has personal significance, too.

Nora’s family has now spread across Colombia, Canada, the United States, and Spain. One of her sisters continues the business in Colombia, another moved to the United States, and her older sister has started a Monarca business in Spain.

The monarch butterfly became a natural symbol for that journey.

“We find a lot of meanings,” Nora said. “Not only because it’s one of the most famous butterflies, but also as a symbol of our own journey.”