In the eye of the beholder :)

Dr. Allan Drummond 

Exquisite comes to mind when seeing a tiny leafhopper realized as a beautiful sculpture by a scientist equipped with the technical and artistic talent to make it happen.

By day, Drummond and his team at the Drummond Lab work on exploring things like the evolution of protein synthesis. Outside of the lab, Drummond spends his free time creating these remarkably realistic metal sculptures of prehistoric and recent insects—all cast out of various metals like bronze and silver.

To create these intricately detailed pieces, Drummond often starts with a pencil sketch, and a lot of research and photographic references to get the exact details right.

He then turns to a 3D modeling program called Blender, which helps him to virtually sculpt the three-dimensional aspects before the wax models for the metal casting process are additively manufactured by a 3D printing machine. Drummond says that Blender has a pretty steep learning curve, but it's the tool that has allowed him to realize his dream of creating these intriguing sculptures that fit into the palm of one's hand.

Dr. Allan Drummond 

How cool is that? For more information on the art, click Drummond Lab.