It has now been received so I can post! Yippee! So important background, I really really really like “bugs.” So when I was given permission to craft something Brood X related, I ran with it.
I decided to create a little cicada sculpture. For a bit there I was uncertain how it would turn out. I don’t play around with clay much but I really love how it turned out.
The body is made from paper clay, the wings are shrinky dink, the eyes are some red beads I had in my stash, and the legs are wire with paper clay on the upper portions. Body and legs were painted with acrylic paint. Awesomely everything was already in my stash so no new supplies needed. Although I do tend to hoard craft supplies so my craft cabinet is really like a mini craft store.
That’s so neat! Everyone’s been talking about Brood X, but I don’t think we got them here where I live.
My husband would probably really like this little cicada sculpture. He’s also a bug person.
The Cacada Safari app website has a map of Brood X (scroll down-- it’s about the third thing there)
It’s the biggest cicada brood, but there are almost 20 others, so there are plenty of places that have some other cicadas instead. (and also places where too many trees got cleared between broods, that don’t have cicadas anymore…)
Oh my goodness! I have no words to describe how much I adore this! I also love bugs and am jealous that hardly any brood x cicadas have emerged near my home. I have only found three exoskeleton so far. Your sculpture is so beautiful and lifelike and the shrinky dink wings are a clever choice. The recipient is one lucky human!
Thank you so much everyone! I was pretty excited to use the shrinky dink. I’m forever trying to come up with interesting ways to use it…particularly because I bought sooo many sheets of it.
@MightyMitochondria I feel you. No Brood X here for me. In Oregon, we have cicadas but I have never seen one. As someone who grew up with them in Indiana, that makes my heart a little sad.
One of my fondest memories is my grams collecting their shells to make some sort of “marching band” display out of them and finding 2 that were still occupied. I kept them in a jar with holes until they emerged and then let them free. It was pretty exciting for me to have them crawl on my hand before they took off.
I live in northwest Indiana. I think I am just out of the Brood X zone. My husband has been to a wooded camp/retreat center just south of Indianapolis twice this month. He said they were so thick that they were flying into people. I’m super jealous!
Your sculpture is so beautiful and lifelike and the shrinky dink wings are a clever choice. The recipient is one lucky human!