More ants

To anybody seeing these posts that doesn't really know me, I study ants. I find them inspiring marvels of evolutionary innovation and they tend to have an impact on my artistic endeavors, hence many an ant post.

Today - Ant sculptures given to the members of the Ward lab at UCDavis when I volunteered there:

Click the genus names to see images of the actual ants they're based on.

Crematogaster

Eurhopalothrix

Mayriella

As with any sculpture involving many intricate appendages, the creation of these ants involved making all of the legs, stings, mandibles, antennae, and even spatulate hairs ahead of time. These were then all baked so that they would retain their shape when inserted into the main body. The legs in particular had wire running through the middle terminating with an exposed hook to ensure they would stay attached (baked clay doesn't bond very well with unbaked clay). Each head and main body segment had balled up tinfoil as a core to conserve clay and make the sculpture lighter. I do that with pretty much everything.

I also tried to make an Amblyopone almost twice the size of these while in Panama, but the humidity made the clay flaky and the the smaller parts got burnt and brittle especially due to being baked twice.