Not sure anymore if I should thank you for the concept of butterfly wings, heh heh.
Searching for various wings has turned into a rabbit hole the last day or so. They are a LOT of variations.
I can easily see why you accumulated so many.
They lose something without color thouugh, so your idea of possibly painting them has some merit.
About that…
I have been doing delicate things in leather lately. Very forgiving medium and is ideal when the design gets fine or thin.
Some 4 oz leather (0.080 or so thick) is my choice for robust earrings, and it engraves and scores well for some added detail.
Best to seal it when done to flatten the soft backside, especially if you masked the back to eliminate flash since removal can pull on it and make it fuzzy, (but that is easy to do with a light spray and then pat flat).
Probably ideal for you if you wanted to thin out your wing designs more than you have so far. That 4oz leather can be cut really thin and still hold up.
If you got a hobby lobby around, they have some really pristine stuff you can play with, and if like it, then can go to Tandy for the half cows. (no marks or bug bites IS a seller for the hobby lobby stuff though).
It is their ‘RealleatherR’ brand at Hobby Lobby → a veg-tanned tooling leather in an 8x11 sheet (which is a lot for small stuff like earrings) and is usually hanging on a hook next to their rolled up stock. Only about $9 bucks if you take one of their 40% off coupons with you.
Ok, break is over. Back to the butterfly wing images rabbit hole, lol.