Praying mantis in three-dimensional quilling

The praying mantis is an amazing insect who has been always fascinating me. Some time ago I was visiting Tikotin Museum of Japanese Art in Haifa when I saw a beautiful box decorated with an image of two praying mantises. The full title reads "Stationery box (Suzuri Bako), 18th c. Flowers and two praying-mantises. Lacquered wood. Design in gold hiramaki-e and mother-of-pearl inlay. Tikotin collection". This experience has become the catalyst for my decision to make a quilled praying mantis.
First, I spent some time studying the structure of praying mantis and sketching, then made two simple mantises, one of them can be seen in the Flower basket, the other one hasn't been used yet. Finally, I tried to create a three-dimensional design. Here's the result.

For this project I used both pre-cut and hand-cut paper strips. The body was made using the three-dimensional quilling techniques, 3/16-inch-wide strips (about 5mm). It consists of an abdomen (two parts) and a thorax (one part). The head is made up of two parts — a tight coil of 1/8-inch-wide strip (3mm), and a ring rolled using a 1/16-inch-wide strip (1.5mm) at the back. 1/16-inch strips were used also for he eyes and other small parts of the head. The legs were created with the traditional coiling technique from 1/8- and 1/16-inch-wide strips (3mm and 1.5mm accordingly). For the wings I employed the husking technique, with narrow 1/16-inch-wide (1.5mm) paper strips.

I made this 3D quilled mantis as a gift, so now I have only the photographs left. Its size is about 3 inches (7.6cm) in length and 2 and a half inches (6.4cm) in height.
Comments
Nati
http://natiquill.blogspot.com
Hugs
Karuna
Groetjes Baukje
That's truely amazing! :)
I love it...
Cheryl
Hi Inna!! I'm following your awesome blog.
Have a nice day!!
I was very surprised to your awesome quilling works.
I happened to find your web site and Ann and Molly are my Quilling friends.
I live in Japan but for NAQG anuual convention,I go to America and I enjoed quilling with a lot of Quillers there!
Here is my gallery and my blog.
http://e-bison.ocnk.net/product-list/21
http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/quillingmotoko
This page is full of pictures of Quilling made by my students and customers.
http://e-bison.ocnk.net/product-list/20
Hope you enjoy!
Only you do for a job with such fidelity to the original. It's amazing!
I was very honored that you are following my blog. Thank you!
xxx Monica