Business North West April 1996

Duo earn their wings and fly towards export markets

By Faye Kingsford
What started out as a hobby has metamorphosed into a profitable cottage industry for Northcote couple, Adrian Kosky and Mish Dennerstein.
Their 18 month old company, Wingspan Artworks, creates hand painted butterflies which are distributed in 100 and 1000 lot shipments to over 100 wholesale distributors throughout Australia and Malaysia.
The delicate luminous butterflies- each one an original- are produced in three near to life sizes, using artist quality acrylic paints on large sheets of glossy film.They are applied from the back of the sheet by a back to front brush technique with four or five coats of colour, before being covered by a protective sealer.
"Because they are light in weight, they are ideal for posting as gifts, or for tourists to pack into their suitcases," Adrian said" Apart from home decorative applications such as sticking them on fridges, the wall, on a pot plant or your computer,they look very attractive as a mural. We also get commissions from Wilderness organisations for special events," Adrian said.[...]
Five years ago,Adrian, a self taught artist, was exploring butterflies as an artistic theme while working as an education officer at the Moonee Ponds Community Centre.
His hobby led to a commission for a butterfly mural on the ceiling of the centre which created local interest." We then started making them individually as gifts for our families and friends to stick on the fridge and the demand soon outgrew our limited time, so we decided to go into full time business," he said.
Mish, who has a Bachelor of Arts in Recreation, has assisted Adrian and their team in painting, but now looks after sales, orders, production scheduling and the training of staff. "As each work is an original, we have had to spend quite a lot of time teaching skills that are unique to our organisation," she said. "I mean, you can't put an advertisement in the employment section of a newspaper specifying for butterfly painters and cutters!"

Australian Gift Guide Magazine January 1996

Colourful flights of fancy

Testimonial: "Wingspan Artworks have developed a striking series of Butterflies guaranteed to brighten any environment.... these delightful creatures seem about to take off!"

Vicki Jarvis - Editor, Australian Gift Guide

Doncaster and Templestowe News
20 September 1995

Butterflies a symbol to carers

The Butterfly is the symbol for palliative care, representing the beauty, and fragility but finite nature of life. The Mid Eastern Palliative Care Association uses the symbol for it's Butterfly campaign to raise money for the service.

"We are delighted with the Butterfly Campaign and will be using it to raise funds in several local shopping centres," Mr Morriss said. "The Butterflies are beautiful and have been totally hand made by Wingspan Artworks."

"We hope the public will support our fundraising campaign as the Butterflies can be used for decoration, as a collcter's item, or simply kept as a reminder of the beauty of life and the importance of the work being done in palliative care," Mr. Morriss said.

Northcote leader Front page
19 July 1995

Flight of fancy takes centre stage at gallery

Northcote Artist Adrian Kosky is in a flutter.

Mr. Kosky, and collegue Mish Denerstein created 1000 hand painted Australian Butterflies for a centrepiece exhibit at the opening of the Cairns Regional Gallery last week. Their company, Wingspan Artworks, specialises in making Butterflies, which are painted onto a type of plastic film, then cut out individually by hand.

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