Two new pieces from the mantises that recently died. The disc is now seal in it's own case. I shoot them before putting them because it's easier and looks better. The second one was made in its case. The shatter effect was purposeful. I noticed that the fumes from the resin causes acrylic to shatter in appearance but still hold it's from. Looks incredible.
Mantis Tomb
I've been working on this all summer, probably 125 hours or so in total. It's made of 1/4" stacked and glued plexi. The plexi was laser cut over a period of 28hrs at doSpace. The black base was etched at doSpace as well. The box that holds lights was constructed by the folks over at midwest plastics. I've only recently started working with them. They are fast and well priced. I have only compliments for them, no complaints. The interior of the box was painted white and lined with led strips to provide the light. The tomb contains an adult female Chinese mantis wrapped in thread and well soaked in isopropyl alcohol. The sarcophagus is airtight so I expect the mantis to keep quite well. The orb is selenite.
Now to start the fly farm.
Photo
Since everything was set up I grabbed another shot of a different Carolina mantis. Lots of diversity in the species.
