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Laughing Mantis Studio

Art inspired by biology, created by a biologist

  • The Art of Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D.
    • Woodworking
    • Stained Glass
    • Pastel Pencil
    • Graphite Pencil
    • 3D Digital Art
    • 2D Digital Art
    • Paintings
    • Sculptures
    • Pet Portraits
    • Jewelry & Hangers
    • 3D Animation
    • Ocean Invasion Series
    • Science Art
  • Shop
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You can see my frequently-updated works-in-progress by following @laughingmantisstudio

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Daniel D. Brown, Ph.D. | Senior Research Scientist | Breast Cancer Research | Pittsburgh, PA.
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There’s a little crabapple tree basically in the There’s a little crabapple tree basically in the ditch on our street. Every few years it has a mast year. I decided to brew up a tiny batch of simple mulled cider, which I’ve done from this tree before. I added a handful of our American beautyberries I grabbed on a whim as I walked by them, boiled, mashed, strained through a cheesecloth, added a little maple syrup, and some sticks of cinnamon. Very slightly more astringent than last time - they could have ripened a bit more. And I don’t feel like de-stemming a few hundred tiny crabapples, which I’m sure added some tannins. Still delicious! @tam_a_ryn loved it, so good enough for me!
I’ve been working on this work-in-progress moth I’ve been working on this work-in-progress moth in short bursts for, I kid you not, 5 months. It’s been incredibly difficult to find shop time this year, largely because of real job responsibilities. I’ll share the full story of this piece in the final post. But it’s a cool moth. Mainly because the species (Stiria bravia, a Texan native around the Rio Grande) was first described by fellow Pittsburgh naturalist Dr. Kevin Keegan, collection manager of invertebrate zoology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, for whom I’m building this piece. … PS If you’re wondering about all the Clutch @clutchofficial in my stories lately, I’ve been listening to them for like 2-3 weeks straight. They just seem to fit my mood lately. And they rock. I’ve been a fan for literally over 30 years, but it’s been a minute and I missed a couple of their later works. So I’ve been going back through their entire enormous catalogue. Still one of my all time faves. #woodworking #scrollsaw #moth #lepidoptera
A little while back, my wife @tam_a_ryn bought me A little while back, my wife @tam_a_ryn bought me this beautiful print of a monarch butterfly with a map of Pittsburgh on the right wing - designed by @mapsbykylie (who turned out to be a close neighbor!). I immediately decided it needed a custom frame, because why buy one for $10 or something when you have the technology and skills to spend hours milling expensive wood, building, sanding, and finishing one yourself? 😂😂 I actually threw this together from some cutoffs of mahogany, ash, walnut, and honey locust I had lying around from other projects. The alternating stripe pattern was initially a mistake when I was laying out the material for glue up, but when I noticed I was like “oh. That looks more interesting!” This is the way. … #woodworking #pictureframe #diyhomedecor #monarch #butterfly #map #cartography
Earlier this year I built a wooden intarsia Monarc Earlier this year I built a wooden intarsia Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) to look over our front garden. I decided that we needed a caterpillar peeking out as well, munching on the remains of a swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). Built from scrap scavenged woods, and cut on bandsaw, scrollsaw, angle grinder, Dremel, and Foredom. I wrote a whole spiel on monarchs in the captions of the previous piece, so I’ll refrain from going on about how amazing monarchs, Lepidoptera in general, and the entire biological world are. Plant natives! Kill your stupid worthless monoculture lawns! And for god’s sake, stop using pesticides unless you have a REALLY good reason. … #monarch #butterfly #gardendecor #woodworking #woodcarving #homegrownnationalpark #backyardhabitat
Here’s the halfway point of this wooden monarch Here’s the halfway point of this wooden monarch caterpillar eating swamp milkweed to go along with the monarch butterfly intarsia I made earlier this year. Carved from random lumber scraps. … #monarch #caterpillars #conservation #woodworking #woodcarving #gardendecor
A while back, Dr. Wayne Stallaert (@wstallaert), a A while back, Dr. Wayne Stallaert (@wstallaert), a colleague in cancer research at Pitt built a bat house for his backyard habitat (swipe for final installed). He asked me to cut this logo, which turned out great! Ebonized cedar (steel wool + vinegar = iron acetate) and dyed curly maple, cut on scrollsaw. … #batman #scrollsaw #bathouse
One of my summer projects I haven’t posted in my One of my summer projects I haven’t posted in my feed yet: a tiny solar-powered river bird bath. The heat dome this summer was brutal. My little bird bath was empty by mid day every day and it was a pain to clean and fill daily. I’ve always wanted to relax out back to the sound of running water. So I sculpted this thing from polystyrene insulation board, terracotta pot trays, and plastic planters. My goal was to get it done fairly quickly, figuring I’d probably learn some things I’d do differently down the road. The main reason I went with the two tiered modular design is I wanted the main reservoir and water pump to be easily removable/cleanable, and modular enough to breakdown in winter. So many designs have the pump down beneath a bunch of stuff. With this design, I simply lift the single terracotta tray and have full access. The bird bath is removable from the river and the river is removable from the base. This was a VERY experimental project and in the process I learned all the glues that will not stick to polystyrene. Which is almost all of them. But it ended up more or less as I envisioned - and it has provided so much ambience to our backyard. And water for all manner of critters. With the aeration and shade in the large reservoir, it remains relatively clean and full for several days in the heat.
One of the silly little projects I slapped togethe One of the silly little projects I slapped together for our front yard in April. I had built 1 hobbit hole last year. Decided it needed a neighbor. #scrollsaw #lordoftherings #hobbit #gardendecor
I have some things to say. It starts with doom and I have some things to say. It starts with doom and gloom, but ends with an orgy in Mexico. But most of what I want to say is too long for the caption so will be in comments. TLDR; The monarch, aside from having a mind-boggling life history, serves as an excellent lesson. It’s been on a steep decline but there are signs of hope. I mean, as a species, it’s not particularly important to the food web. But it’s pretty and people notice it. And it has something important to say, which is: “if you plant the things my children eat (native milkweeds) and don’t kill me with pesticides, I’m gonna make babies all over the place. Then I’ll fuck off a couple thousand miles away to have the craziest orgy you can imagine in Mexico while y’all suffer through seasonal affective disorder. But I’ll keep coming back” I don’t expect you all to read the rest in comments but I hope a few do. Handcut on scrollsaw. Built from scavenged ebonized black walnut, dyed ash killed by emerald ash borers, urban-felled American Holly, and wenge scraps. #homegrownnationalpark #monarch #woodworking #rewilding #scrollsaw #butterfly
Well. If it weren’t for Bluesky having the worst Well. If it weren’t for Bluesky having the worst video compression algorithm ever, and the fact that 90% of my time right now is spent taking nature videos I feel the need to share, I probably wouldn’t be back on IG. But here I am, as all my story watchers know by the billion bug pics. Anyway, there are a couple projects I need to get on my profile or the incompleteness of my portfolio will drive me insane. So here’s Chewbacca the first week we got him in December in his first visit to the shop. Half-complete monarch. More of that soon.
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