Caterpillars - Blog Posts

because you guys asked…

caterpillars! (There are 4 but one was at the very bottom of the container and i didnt want to disturb him)

@extremereader, @acewithobsessions, @inkscapedoodles

Some after work Instagram browsing brought up an unexpected gem today as it randomly decided to show me some automatons.

I haven't seen any since childhood, where I vaguely recall them featuring on quirky supernatural or spooky shows as creepy curiosities from time to time.

I hadn't realised that they were still made or indeed that they could be made into such beautiful creations. With serenely swimming whales, cantering horses and fluttering birds & insects.

I decided to see if I could make a basic one using bits and bobs from my room. This ended up including black card, scissors, a bamboo skewer from one of my orchids, wire and wire clippers, a thin cylindrical ice cream stick that I saved from a kulfi, and hot glue and my glue gun.

It took a bit of time to wrap my head around the (admittedly very basic) mechanics and the end result is liable to come apart at the seams if I so much as think about turning the mechanism too vigorously. But I am happy with my first attempt.

If I can figure out how to make a less slap dash mechanism then I might make a realistically painted deaths head hawk moth automaton. I am rearing some caterpillars of this species so I am ever so slightly obsessed with them at the moment. You can see the caterpillars at the top of this post and I don't think I am alone in thinking they are absolutely gorgeous little buggers.

comic done for a project assignment a few years back!

Look at da baby bois!

a mess of mature promethea moth caterpillars (Callosamia promethea) wriggling plumply after spending a little less than a month fattening up on wild cherry leaves

a smaller relative of the cecropia moth, these are one of the less well-known giant silkmoths in the US, but they might just be my favorite species to raise.

(Massachusetts, 8/20/23)