Tom Hardwidge is an exceptional English artist who loves to sculpture insects, he calls arthrobots, from… ammunition. Don’t be alarmed though, it’s deactivated ammunition.
Besides various ammunition of different calibers, he ornaments his steampunk art with old gears and sprockets from broken pocket watches, along with sheet copper, brass and aluminum to make it easier to attach limbs and wings, as well as tiny nuts and bolts.
They’re all layered out together to form magnificent naturally looking metal insects, like dragonflies, grasshopers, bees, arachnids, fireflies or pray mantis.
His creations are so naturally looking that he even named each model after it’s biological counterpart. If you check his gallery page, you can see models named such as hymechenoptera oculus, roborthoptera aurum , hemipteroid minima or coleopteroid cruris.
Love these? Yeah, I bet – I mean, who freaking wouldn’t! The best part is that Tom is actually selling these beauties on his website, where you can order one his unique steampunk art. He’s even throwing in some preliminary sketches, alongside a plus a leaflet detailing the name, phylum, class and order of your purchase. I’m still browsing his website right now and from what I see, most of his models are either sold out or not for sale all together, except the “coleopteroid cruris.” Seeing how his art has exploded all over the web right about now, you might want to grap it while you still can.
Images courtesy of Arthrobots. Story via 1800recycling.