I wanted to magnify the wonderment of nature by highlighting the immensely intricate design of nature barely seen to the naked eye if it weren't for macro photography. Each curve, rivet, and polished surface captures the elegance of the treehopper celebrating the timeless work of art.
I work in 1 mm brass and copper sheet and the first thing I do is to replicate the funny cone shape thorax this organism has.
The wings are made out of 1mm copper sheet. I need to punch a whole lot of raised bubbles into the copper sheet.
Once I have the two sides bent and punched, I make a top part of the abdomen out of brass.
All the legs are first made out of Sculpey, a thermo plastic putty which hardens with heat. They are used for sand casting.
Now I assemble the sculpture with placer screw to get the correct 'attitude'.
The inset is the bent 6 mm bass rods bent to shape and then they are set in plaster. Once the plaster is hard, they can be soldered together. This will form the 'neck' of the sculpture.
I make a 'neck top' out of thermo plastic and the sand cast it.
I make the 'heli top' out of copper and brass.
I make the 'heli top' out of copper and brass.
Then I add brass surround and center portion.
I also added some giant eyes because they got largish eyes in nature.
I added some mouth parts and claws and stuff.
I painted some eyes for the center top part.
Now I'm happy with the new design for the eyes in the head, which is more insect like and prominent.
The eyes in the head also go well with the multiple eyes in the helicopter rotary.
