Transparent Insect Experiment

All bets are off when it comes to making art. I’m a firm believer that there are no rules and nature is our collaborator. With that being said, I’m trying to make insects transparent and stuff them full of flowers…

As you can see above, here is an example of where I’m headed in these experiments, using insect bodies to house tiny TINY flowers. 

This is easily one of the more involved bodies of work to date. Usually with my opalized and crystallized work, its a matter of making the solutions and leaving the pieces alone for several weeks, however this particular experiment requires several steps- all of which are incredibly interesting and I want to walk you through them now!

Step 1: CLEANING

When it comes to insects, their remains can house many particles and aggregates such as mold, dirt, clay, and sometimes even other pests. One of my go to materials are cicada shells. They’re light, easy to find, and don’t have any internal organs so they’re quick to work with when it comes to making them transparent. However, the shells are discarded after the nymph crawls from the dirt, meaning these shells re usually caked in debris. I start by filling a beaker with dirty cicada shells, dish soap and spinning them on a magnetic stirrer for a few hours. I’ll repeat this process about 4 times over the course of two days in order to remove as much dirt and clay as possible. At this point, there’s an obvious difference in the appearance, and the entire structure is visible. It's important to rise as much soap off as possible to avoid any unintended reactions with the nasty compounds to follow.

Step 2: BLEACHING

The bleaching phase helps remove a good amount of the natural pigments and breaks down any leftover particles that are hiding in crevices. For this, I use 30% Hydrogen peroxide. This stuff is nasty and can burn your skin. Actually most of the compounds used in this experiment can burn your skin…

I’ll store the insects in a jar of Hydrogen peroxide for about two weeks. I’ll make sure to change out the hydrogen peroxide at least twice a week as well. Its also important to keep the lid slightly ajar to allow bubbles and gases to escape (most likely from reacting to soil particles). After the insects are relatively bleached, its time to rinse them in water several times and allow them to air dry. After they’re completely dry I take the extra step to rinse them a few more times to ensure all of the H2O2 is removed. 

Step 3: DELIPIDATION

This is where we get serious. To perform these processes I am looking to a new compound out of Japan called CUBIC. Its a series of reagents used in histology, specifically for clearing the tissues of organs in mice for observation. However, I was able to find a couple of chemists in Japan who used this stuff on beetles with astounding results. 

I start by submerging the insect in CUBIC-L. This compound will specifically break down lipids, fats and the proteins that give way to natural colors. Its important to wear full clothing, eye protection, gloves, etc etc. If this stuff can make tissue transparent, imagine what it can do to your skin. I’ll prep the insect by submerging it in a 1:1 ratio of CUBIC-L and distilled water, this helps ease the material into chemical abuse. After the insect has soaked in this mixture overnight, I will replace it with 100% CUBIC-L. Just enough to barely cover the body (usually 4-8ml). I will then incubate the container at 37 degrees Celsius overnight or until the body is transparent. After that step, I replace half of the container with fresh CUBIC-L and place on a rocking table. It looks like a little plate that gently shakes and rocks the solution around. 

Step 4: REFRACTIVE INDEX MATCHING

This phase is arguably the most important and the step that really highlights how all of this will work. While Step 3 can make tissues transparent, the full transparency comes from homogenizing the insect in a mixture that will match its refractive index. This way light can pass through nearly unobstructed. I soaked the cicada shell in CUBIC-R+. After incubating the insect in CUBIC R+ at 37 degrees Celsius overnight, it was nearly invisible in the solution. At this point anything going forward is hypothetical and still under a lot of work…

I didn’t want to house the art in CUBIC-R+. This is because any flower I would put in the cicada shell would also disappear. So I removed the cicada shell, rinsed it several times and placed it in a compound with a similar RI. CUBIC R+ has a refractive index of 1.52, so I went with a bottle of dimethicone I had lying around, with an RI of roughly 1.48. The viscosity of dimethicone also meant that the piece and any respective flowers inside wouldn’t move around as much. Its sort of like a clear thick gel, but also thin enough to work with.

Step 5: FLORALIZING

I start by submerging the insect yet again in a jar of dimethicone. I make sure the inside is full of the gel so it doesn’t float and I can carefully insert flowers how I like. After the insect is saturated and falls to the bottom of the jar, I begin the floralizing process. I make a small incision (or in the case of cicada shells that already have a slit, I simply pry it open with tweezers.) I will then carefully place small flowers that have been air dried into the insect. At this point its less about science and more about artistic composition/ preference. I only have one floralized piece to show at the moment, but I’m relatively happy with how legible the small white flowers are!

There’s plenty more to come. Next up, I’m hoping to clear a scorpion and fill its claws with flowers!