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WING THEORY | Nature's patterns. At your fingertips.
I never thought a scientific study of butterfly wings could become a nail collection, but here we are!
I came across Alfred G. Mayer's On the Color and Color-Patterns of Moths and Butterflies from 1897 on The Public Domain Review, and I was fascinated by the way he transformed butterfly wings into these beautiful, almost abstract patterns to study their colors and symmetry.
So I imagined WING THEORY, a fictional press-on nail brand that takes these forgotten scientific illustrations and turns them into tiny pieces of wearable art.
Using the original illustrations as references, I created a custom Recraft Style and explored how their colors, intricate patterns, and even the little scientific markings could translate into contemporary nail designs.
I wanted each set to feel like a small collection of butterfly specimens, except instead of being preserved behind glass in a museum, they're meant to be worn.
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Press-on nails are my modern take 😊
I made one Recraft Style that draws press-on nails as if a mineral painter from 1810 had drawn them.
Many people do their nails now: at home, in minutes, a new set whenever they feel like it. Small brands sell them all over TikTok and Pinterest, and they need designs nobody else has. This Style gives them 200-year-old ones.
I trained it on six of James Sowerby's hand-painted rock prints (1802 to 1817), plus a gold ring and a stone table from the Met.
Try it in 3 steps 👍
1. Open the Style and paste: "Five almond press-on nails on cream paper, red jasper with gold veins, one nail with a small gold cabochon." Change "red jasper with gold veins" to try another stone, like "pale pink stone with dark red speckles".
2. Remove the Style, add your drawing as a reference, and paste: "Make these real press-on nails, same colors, white background"
3. Add the set as a reference and paste: "Hands covering the face, wearing these exact nails, red jasper with gold veins, white background"
i went back to the late 1890 and earliest 19th century, and choose to work with a beautiful painting called; Giant Magnolias on a Blue Velvet Cloth by the artist; Martin Johnson Heade.
it definitely deserved a comeback, so i turned it into a Recraft Style, and use it to draw things Martin would never have imagined, like modern fashion wears, techs and appliances.
there's alot in my recraft project, check it out through the link.
more with V4 Style
NIGHT BLOOM: An 1897 Wardrobe for Wireless Life
I created a fashion collection inspired by Maurice Pillard Verneuil’s L’animal dans la décoration (1897), bringing historical animal and botanical ornament into contemporary urban life. Using a custom Recraft V4 Style built from public domain archive references, I explored three pattern treatments: large statement motifs, smaller coordinated repeats, and ornamental placement borders. The collection applies these patterns to outerwear, coordinated outfits, and accessories for wireless listening, electric commuting, and modern delivery routines. As a pattern designer, I focused on motif scale, placement, and fabric detail to give the collection a consistent identity.
Beautiful, calm art, easy on the eyes, this is what we call fashion.