Leaf-footed Insect

There seem to be many types of insects that are referred to as "leaf-footed" - this one is diactor flavolineata. The design for this particular piece was relatively straightforward. The challenging part of this model was the execution since the color-change was more intricate that anything I have done before. The head was particularly tricky since I needed to change the color on more than just the two flaps for the eyes while keeping the rest of the body and the antennae black. Disguising the side-effects of this color change also became an issue since this model is actually upside down in order to display the red color from the inverted head. The leafy parts of the legs were easier to color-change - I made the hind-legs longer than necessary, pleated the legs to isolate the leafy regions that needed to remain wide, used swivel-folds to narrow the rest, then inverted each side of the wide flaps to change the color of the leafy parts.

Design date: June, 2012

Paper used: A single un-cut square of back-coated tissue paper treated with methyl cellulose.