“Insects, worms, and other small animals that carry out vital functions for life on earth have declined by 45 percent average over 35 years, threatening human, water quality and food supplies…”
– Steve Connor, “Vital invertebrates decline 45 percent, study finds,” independent.co.uk, July 2014
I decided to construct an Insect Space Ship with a curved form, this will require precision when cutting the wood. I will have to make a template from a Bristol board and trace the cut out multiple times precisely so that the curved form is even on both sides of the ship. This will be the most time consuming part of the process, as each individual strip will have to be cut out and then evenly sanded down so that all the strips are equal. There will be two large wings coming from the sides of the shuttle. Fire will come from beneath the shuttle as though it is blasting off into space.
The space shuttle idea came about from watching an episode of The Simpsons, Season 5 titled “Deep Space Homer.” My son and I watched the episode one night and from that night on he has been obsessed with space shuttles or as he calls them “rocket ships.” I’ am interested in exploring the imaginative mind of youth and how it relates to their perception of the world around them. I am a firm believer that as humans grow from adolescence into adulthood oftentimes more and more of the childlike imagination is lost. With “Rocket Ship” I am attempting to regain bits of my own playful imagination. Here are a few preliminary sketches.
Species: Vespidae
I am designing this Insect Space Ship mainly for insects that belong to the Vespidae species, which consists of Wasps and Hornets. I wanted to design an insect hotel that reflected an object in or preparing to take flight. An insect I found particularly interesting is the Paper Wasp. The Paper Wasp gathers fibers from dead wood and plant stems, which they mix with saliva to make water- resistant nests. Inside of the space ship I have this paper/wood material that would make life inside the space ship more livable.
As far as the cardboard model goes I made a much smaller model because the material was easier to bend and manipulate into the desired shape for the final. The only things that I am missing in the cardboard model are the inside pieces.
This project was time consuming overall, but allowed a lot of room for discovery and experimentation with a material that I have never used before. In the beginning I was intimidated greatly by the amount of work and time I knew had to be dedicated to the project so that it could be a success. However, this project forced me to think about time management.
I knew that this project would not be easily done in a week. I spent two days alone cutting from the templates on the board. I also found it difficult to make the wings flush on the sides so that they could align precisely with the sides. This project overall was a success, I was nervous that it would not render the way I had envisioned.