Description
Inspiration for my Leaf-Cutter Ant Ornament
I find the sight of the Leaf-Cutter Ants carrying their vibrant trophies across precarious branches absolutely mesmerizing. So it is no surprise that on one of the earliest pages of my jewellery design notebook is the design for a Leaf-Cutter Ant necklace, featuring several ants carrying jagged shards of leaf around the collar. When I drew the sketches all those years ago, I hadn’t started creating jewellery and so had no idea of the complexity of the seemingly simple design. Now that I have a few years experience under my belt, I am keen to realize my original design, possibly with the eventual addition of brightly coloured enamels. The ant ornament is the first step. I am still at the stage of not quite knowing how to build this gravity-defying piece of jewellery. But the modelling of a single ant is a good starting point.
Thank goodness for the macro-photographers who kindly share their incredible images on-line. These are invaluable to me as they enable me to create a reasonably accurate image of the creature – no matter how small. And I find Leaf-Cutter Ants surprisingly charismatic, with the ridge through their enlarged heads to enable them to carry leaf shards many times their own size.
This is the first in the range of Leaf-Cutter Ant jewellery. Keep an eye out for future additions to the family – or get in touch and let me know what you would like. Once I work out the technical side of things, I foresee my ant colony growing quite fast!
According to One Kind Planet, the lines that the Leaf-Cutter Ants make following each other carrying their leaves can be up to 50 metres long!
