PASADENA, Calif. - Named after a poem by Edgar Allan Poe about buried treasure, "Gold Bug" is more than a cabinet of curiosities. Not for the faint of heart, the entire shop exudes a neo-Victorian ambiance with shelves full of oddities sure to shock the skittish.
One of the shop's specialities is taxidermy and Theodora Coleman is co-owner along with her parents.
“What I love about what I do is getting to work with scientists, specialists, paleontologists that are out there finding beautiful and unique things like this,” said Coleman, holding up a fossil. “This ammonite, this swam in the seas during the same time as the dinosaurs.”
Coleman was just a senior at Occidental College when her family opened the business in 2007. Growing up on a farm on Orcas Island in Washington, she was attuned to the natural elements at a young age so it made a lot of sense to open a gallery rooted in a filial love for wild nature and weird science.
“My folks raised me on a farm,” said Coleman. “So I was really close to nature and all the cycles that exist there. You could call me a feral child. I can say that I've never really been normal. I am drawn to things that stand out.”
And for Coleman, that’s butterflies, which she carefully assembles inside domes to be admired by the resident naturalist. Fit for a museum, they’re meant for your home.
“I love butterflies because they’re so brilliant,” said Coleman as she displayed a dome full of butterflies from all over the world. “They’re so many colors. Like this for instance. This is called a Birdwing. It’s in a family of the largest butterflies on the Earth. This. This is surprisingly a moth. It’s day-flying. It’s from Madagascar. It’s a Sunset Moth.”
There are birds, there are bugs, and lots and lots of butterflies. But out of all the vibrant and splendid specimens at Gold Bug, the most unique creature comes from the deep sea.
“It’s really important to us that the things we exhibit die naturally, like this isopod for instance,” said Coleman as she holds up a creature that looks like a foot-long pill bug. “This is a deep sea creature that was accidentally caught in a fisherman's net. What I think is so beautiful is you really can get an idea for the different varieties of crustaceans that are out there.”
Coleman credits her childhood for nurturing her love for animals and science. Oddities as they’re called, every animal displayed died naturally, obtained from museums and zoos and she hopes her artwork inspires others to appreciate the beauty of the natural world around us.