The first cicada I designed to look as naturalistic as possible within the small space and shape (8x10” oval) settled on, with a sky-like wispy blue background, and and a green X that represented the fresh branches they lay there eggs in as well as the obvious denotation of “Brood X”. I chose bright red for the eyes, and orange wing accents to match the local variety of the insects, and had recently purchased a large amount of thick iridescent rippled glass at a liquidation sale so I knew I would have enough stock to reproduce the cicada itself again, and be able to experiment with different background combinations for more variety later on.This was the first piece that I ever used the same template for again, but I still wanted each one to be unique so even the similar ones are different enough to satisfy my “one-of-a-kind” motto. Having worked in production originally, I didn’t want to repeat the same designs over and over for wholesaling, so this was the one time I made a compromise and each piece afterward was still individually commissioned. Although I work like a machine, I refuse to be a mindless drone ever again.
