Exploring Strange New Worlds
An insect gall
Walking through the woods at work, I stepped right next to a leaf with a sandy brown, roundish globe attached to it. That was an instant grab. Another treasure for my growing collection. I have a corner in my studio devoted to treasures...bird feathers, mushrooms, sticks with lichens, sticks with buds, sticks with beaver teeth markings, dead insects, pine cones, and now, insect galls.
On rainy days, howling wind days, or super frickin' cold days, I prefer to journal inside. On occasion, I'll also journal inside online with other people. It was a group journal day that I chose to explore my insect gall.
I started with some partially blind contour sketches in different positions to get a feel for what I was looking at. The casing was harder than I expected. It looked like delicate handmade paper with slight bumps and depressions, but felt harder like a hammered bowl. When I pressed on it with my fingers, it didn't flex or bow at all.
I squeezed it again thinking it was bomb-proof and it exploded under my brute strength. The casing was actually surprisingly thin. The inside was surprisingly beautiful.
It looked like a sea urchin without the spines. A radial pattern started where the gall attached to the leaf and continued to the other side. There were tiny hairs or fibers attached to the inside of the casing as well. Following one of the lines, I found a separate structure hidden from my initial view. Fun!
The structure was a little bristle ball that was securely attached to the casing with a web of fibers. I had to extract it with a pair of tweezers. The bristle ball must have been a house within a house, because it had an exit hole in it, just like the larger casing did. It reminded me of a mutant daddy long leg, one roundish body with legs all over the place. Haha. DNA gone awry.
I'm disappointed to say that I didn't actually open the daddy long leg. It seemed too small and I didn't have the proper tools. Maybe it's time for one of those high school dissecting kits that comes in a baby blue case. Did you ever have one of those? In any case, I DID draw a blow up of the little 5mm daddy long leg house. I wanted to remember how alien and fascinating it was.
I think these kinds of explorations are so deeply engaging because of what I discover, and also what I'm left wondering. It's my own version of Star Trek, exploring strange new worlds.