3rd picture for my Positive Gate project that is now becoming a little zine project because why not. :') (and I'd love having a little book with those illustrations)
Start with a large sheet of cardboard. Stores like home depot have large moving boxes that come flat like this, perfect for this project.
I use a projector to trace my butterfly, but you can also put tracing paper up to a screen and glue it to your cardboard, or ask your library to let you use their projector.
Make sure to trace not just the outside, but also all of the markings and patterns. Doing the antennae as well and keeping the scrap cardboard will allow you to measure out the right length.
2.
Cut around the outside of your lepidopteran and crease where the wings meet each other and the body. I use my hands, but a ruler can help. After bending your wings into a natural position, make the body and head with your clay of choice, mine is foam clay which is cheap and easy to use.
Blend the sides of the body into the wings just enough to stick, this will hold the pose you've chosen.
Prop up the wings with whatever is around and keep in a safe spot to dry. Mine dries overnight at this size. You can see I've used bottles for mine
3.
Once dry and solidified, the clay holds the wings in place in the way you left them.
Measure your antennae wire a little longer than needed and poke it into the clay. If it doesn't stay, add a little dot of super or hot glue at the base.
Glue a mounting bracket on the back. You can angle this however you like to have your lepidopteran upright, sideways, or even upside down
4.
Paint your sections individually so you don't lose your trace lines. I go in with white first to cover up the print on the cardboard, then put the correct colors over that.
If making a high contrast lep like this, go in with black at the end to clean up your edges.
If adding any fur to the body, get a piece larger than you need and hot glue it on, then trim the backing underneath the fibers with tiny snips, as not to cut the fur itself, and carefully glue the edges of the backing to the body as well
5.
Brush a matte finish like mod podge over your final product. Hold your lep up to where you want it to hang, then mount with a nail
A wonderful Pokemon chinese animated short film directed by DaiWei (All Saints Street) and produced by MTJJ / HMCH studio (Legend of Hei) for Chinese New Year.
Slow your scroll and spend some quality time with this awesome amphipod. 🤩
With a transparent body, the crystal amphipod, Cystisoma magna, is essentially invisible in the dim waters of the ocean’s twilight zone. Most of their cousins grow no bigger than your fingernail, but the crystal amphipod can fill your entire hand. And unlike many other hyperiids who live life hidden as hitchhikers, crystal amphipods swim freely in the open water. Living out in the open with nowhere to hide requires a different kind of stealth.
With the help of MBARI’s ships and deep-sea robots, our researchers and their collaborators revealed the secret to the crystal amphipod’s invisibility. Their exoskeleton is covered in microscopic shaggy structures or a fine coating of biofilm. Tiny spherical bacteria, only nanometers in diameter, work like the anti-reflective coating on eyeglasses to help Cystisoma camouflage in an environment that is sorely lacking in places to hide from hungry predators.
The crystal amphipod faces a fragile future. As industries look to the deep seafloor for mining precious metals, even animals living far above the bottom are at risk. Mining these metals will release plumes of dirty wastewater into the ocean’s twilight zone, clouding the crystal amphipod’s vision and interfering with their invisible superpower.
We urgently need to identify the impacts of deep-sea mining to help resource managers and policymakers guide decision-making about the ocean, its inhabitants, and its resources. Share what you have learned about the remarkable animals of the deep—together, we can be a powerful voice for the ocean. Learn more about these amazing amphipods in our Animals of the Deep gallery.
2087
stormborns
theartofmadeline
izzy806
jacobvanloon
dededos
