Today I visited Dusit Park’s Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall. This is a museum made a wonderful display of the handicrafts of Thailand. Sorry this isn’t my own photo, but they did not allow cameras in the museum.
A highlight was the beetle collage. What is that you may ask? Well there is a type of wood boring beetle that has iridescent wings. When the beetle dies the Thai collect the wings to embellish their handicrafts. In this picture the beetle wings have been cut very thinly and weaved with a local bamboo to create the chandelier and panels next to the portrait. The green you see in the picture is the reflection of the beetle wing. This crafting form is actually dying out, however, the Queen is trying to preserve this art form by establishing crafting schools.
More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beetlewing
