SLO County artist crafts ‘one-of-a-kind’ earrings to save monarch butterflies
As local artist Amy Loschiavo wandered through the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove with her class of second-grade students, she had a sinking suspicion that the population was rapidly diminishing.
She led annual field trips at the nature preserve and took joy in explaining the life cycle of butterflies to beaming 8-year-olds. But with each visit, she noticed fewer monarch butterflies returning to winter in the popular San Luis Obispo County spot.
“It was always really sad to see,” Loschiavo told The Tribune.
Eventually, she quit teaching and returned to making art, throwing herself into ceramics classes. Still, the monarchs hovered in the back of her head.
“I kept thinking — why can’t my work do more than just look beautiful?” she said.
So Loschiavo founded AL Fine Art & Design, where she sells handcrafted ceramic creations, and recently launched a fundraiser dedicated to raising money to support the monarchs’ survival.
For each pair of handcrafted butterfly-shaped earrings she sells, a portion of the proceeds are donated to conserving the orange-and-black insect population.
Monarch butterfly population drops in SLO county
Historically, tens of thousands of monarch butterflies descend into the towering eucalyptus trees next to the coastal estuary in Pismo Beach each winter.
However, during the peak of the 2024 season, the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove only hosted 556 monarchs — an abrupt decline from the 16,044 butterflies counted in 2023, according to data from the conservation-focused nonprofit Xerces Society.
As of Nov. 21, only 471 monarchs had been counted at the Pismo Beach grove, Pismo State Beach said in a social media post. Clusters of monarchs are typically visible throughout the preserve into February.
Loschiavo hopes her ceramic earrings can play a small part in boosting conservation efforts to revive the dwindling insects.
“I really care about the butterfly population,” she said. “They’re pollinators, so we need them. They’re not just beautiful, but they’re necessary.”
SLO ceramicist uses art to protect local butterfly population
Loschiavo was an avid painter, art major and occasional ceramicist while studying at Cal Poly.
After graduating, she worked as a behavioral therapist and then taught second grade at C.L. Smith Elementary School in San Luis Obispo.
After a few years, however, she felt too burned out to continue. She fell back on her art background and started taking ceramic classes at Anam-Cre Pottery Studio in downtown SLO.
“I just completely fell in love with it all over again,” she said.
Now, Loschiavo teaches courses at Anam-Cre Pottery Studio while making ceramic jewelry and wares to sell on her website, which she launched in the fall of 2024.
That includes her Butterfly Project earrings. For every pair sold, 10% of the proceeds are donated to the Monarch Butterfly Fund, a nonprofit organization devoted to habitat conservation, Loschiavo told The Tribune.
Coming in 10 different colors ranging from rose pink to night sky, the miniature butterfly-shaped jewelry is a focal point of her work, she said.
Transforming clay into one-of-a-kind earrings
Loschiavo was drawn to crafting ceramic butterfly earrings because they’re easy to ship and great make gifts.
Plus, people love the dangling jewelry, she said.
The artistic process behind her creations begins with porcelain clay, which is typically used in fine china. She rolls the clay into a thin layer and cuts each earring out by hand, stamping them with the butterfly’s iconic wing features.
Once shaped, she dries the earrings and sands the edges.
Then into the kiln they go, she said, baking at 1900 degrees for 24 hours.
Afterward, Loschiavo dips the pieces into multicolored glazes and throws them into the kiln again before finally attaching gold-plated or sterling silver hoops.
“Each one is really one-of-a-kind,” she said, showing off the pink ice-colored butterflies hanging from her earlobes.
How to support monarch butterfly fundraiser
Loschiavo sells the ceramic butterfly earrings for $44 a pair online at alfineartanddesign.com.
You can also find her ceramics at Hands Gallery in downtown San Luis Obispo or at local pop-up markets.
She said the monarch fundraiser will be ongoing, though she may raise funds for other nonprofit organizations in the future, such as the SLO Food Bank.
