I went through several ideas, starting with just a moth. I had some bird bones that I had just cleaned and had gathered some sticks that I had drying in preparation for this project as well so looking at those materials I was going to make a moth made out of sticks with the bones on top but the sticks didn’t look like I had planned and it was hard to tell what it was. I decided to scrap that idea and found some green thread which I thought looked like moss. My favorite moth is a death’s head hawk moth which has a skull design on its body so I thought that using the bones for that and adding them on top of a drawn paper moth would look nice.
Death’s Head Hawkmoth
Concept Collage
I added a base of bark and sticks, to make it look like the moth was perched and ready for flight. I chose to not use any glue when attaching the bark and the sticks together because the way the thread was tied held it together.
I didn’t get the chance to have any peer feedback because I missed the first class and the Monday after we had no class so I just made do.
Moth by itself
The criticism I got was that the drawn moth looked too out of place with the rest of the piece using natural materials. I agree with this and if I had more time I would have made the moth out of leaves or another material like tissue paper which was suggested. The other students really liked the bones being from a bird and how the base wasn’t attached with glue but with the thread. They also enjoyed how the moth looked ready to take flight which is what I was going for.
If I had to change anything I would swap out the material I used to make the moth and make more branches attached to the base.
My final piece during the crit.
