Beautiful Bugs

joyce-fritz3Ok, so you know what is on my mind this week? Bugs! First something nipped on me several nights in a row while I slept then later this past week these brilliant green bugs keep popping up in one of the bathrooms (turned out to be stink bugs … yuck!), then I was chased down a desert trail I regularly run by the biggest and strangest hopping beetle/mosquito looking thing the other day. Now, I am not a squeamish girl and I actually really like bugs–they are amazing creatures–but I’ve nearly had enough. So to resurrect my love of bugs, let’s do beautiful bugs this week. We’ll see what I can find.

Joyce Fritz came to mind first, of course. I have been admiring her bugs since nearly day one of my polymer inspired existence. I remember reading an interview about her use of recycled telephone wire for the legs to make appendages as colorful as the clay canes most of her bugs are built from. I thought that was so clever. The antennae and other parts are made from wire and beads. She sells almost exclusively through wholesaling which means she makes a LOT of bugs, and yet they all look so fun and inspired. I love that this one has an entire landscape scene on its back, perhaps carrying an image of its ‘native’ environment. That would be a very interesting bug to find while out on a trail.

While I go looking for more beautiful bugs, enjoy a little gallery showing of Joyce’s work on her website.

Inspirational Challenge of the Day: Create a more appealing version of something you tend to find ugly in nature. Bugs, snakes, fungus, weeds … just come up with something you regular try to avoid and see if you can’t create a beautiful version of it or let it inspire form, color, texture or motifs for a new piece.

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Sage

2 Comments

  1. Eva on August 24, 2016 at 10:20 am

    Sounds like you might be dealing with bed bugs. 🙁



    • Sage on August 24, 2016 at 7:12 pm

      Fortunately no, it’s not bedbugs. I’ve had my experience with those a few times … only once at my own place and it was just two of them … hitch-hiked from a friends in a sweater and holed themselves under my studio chair! Little buggers. It takes me almost 12 hours to react to bed bugs but these would wake me up every time and there’d be an immediate welt. So spiders or apparently the stink bugs bite too. Nothing for a week now though. Thank goodness! I hope you’ve never had to deal with bed bugs. They are insidious!



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