Creo Pictipennis Housing

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mantid_mike

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I just built this 8"x8"x8" housing for my subadult creos. Materials used were 1/8" clear acrylic, 4-ply museum board for the lid, and metal screen. I dressed up the interior with a nice forked twig, sphagnum moss, and plastic plants. Let me know if I need to add anything. The male is subadult and the i think the female is presub.

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I'm REALLY curious to know more about this project. The results look amazing. How much was the total cost? love the 8"x8"x8"size. Seems applicable for most mantid species. I literally would appreciate any and every detail, as I'm on a quest to make housing that looks great and functions well (this could be it, but potential price and tools needed concern me :p ).

 
you can buy acrylic @ any art store. i used a laser cutter @ school to cut it perfectly square and used cement to glue it together. the 4 ply museum board is really thick so it makes a decent lid. it sort of "snaps" in because I glued basswood along the edges. acrylic is kinda expensive but i just have some laying around since i'm an architecture student and we use it all the time.

 
Yeah, acrylic would probably only be acceptable for "display" mantids. Or for wealthy people :) I am having a hard time finding it lower than 6-10$ a square foot (you get one cage assuming dimensions are 6''x6" and you use an alternative bottom). But if you do start to offer these I'd be interested in what your prices would be. If you could hit the $10-15 range, I'm sure you could find customers, lol. Might want to get customers before making them tho (I've made the mistake of fabricating to much of one thing I thought was going to sell).

On a separate note, my brother use to "steal" art supplies from his college all the time. He made wire wrapped mineral necklaces to sell (trust me he needed the money). Not that I'm encouraging stealing... i'm just saying look into it ;)

 
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Mantaman said:
Yeah, acrylic would probably only be acceptable for "display" mantids. Or for wealthy people :) I am having a hard time finding it lower than 6-10$ a square foot (you get one cage assuming dimensions are 6''x6" and you use an alternative bottom). But if you do start to offer these I'd be interested in what your prices would be. If you could hit the $10-15 range, I'm sure you could find customers, lol. Might want to get customers before making them tho (I've made the mistake of fabricating to much of one thing I thought was going to sell).

On a separate note, my brother use to "steal" art supplies from his college all the time. He made wire wrapped mineral necklaces to sell (trust me he needed the money). Not that I'm encouraging stealing... i'm just saying look into it ;)
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Yep, acrylic is pretty expensive but it wouldn't break if it happened to take a fall...and it also looks sexier than a deli cup. I don't mind fabricating a few of them. I build furniture and other stuff all sorts of other stuff daily anyway. Check out my tumblr: http://800-tons.tumblr.com/

 
Oh I know, I drool over the thought of having correctly sized and functional acrylic cages for my mantids. How a cage looks seems VERY important to me. I hate having a bunch of cups all over the place. Also, your work is beautiful (some amazing photos of other work on our site as well). The chair by Bellboy is stunning. I have an awesome art teacher from high school that would love it if I went into Architecture. If you ever get an assignment for a specific thing like... a mantis hobby desk, you should go for it :)

Did you use acrylic cement for the bonds?

 
Mantaman said:
Oh I know, I drool over the thought of having correctly sized and functional acrylic cages for my mantids. How a cage looks seems VERY important to me. I hate having a bunch of cups all over the place. Also, your work is beautiful (some amazing photos of other work on our site as well). The chair by Bellboy is stunning. I have an awesome art teacher from high school that would love it if I went into Architecture. If you ever get an assignment for a specific thing like... a mantis hobby desk, you should go for it :)

Did you use acrylic cement for the bonds?
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Mantaman said:
Oh I know, I drool over the thought of having correctly sized and functional acrylic cages for my mantids. How a cage looks seems VERY important to me. I hate having a bunch of cups all over the place. Also, your work is beautiful (some amazing photos of other work on our site as well). The chair by Bellboy is stunning. I have an awesome art teacher from high school that would love it if I went into Architecture. If you ever get an assignment for a specific thing like... a mantis hobby desk, you should go for it :)

Did you use acrylic cement for the bonds?
Click to expand...
Thanks. I agree with you about the cups all over the place. A bunch of rectangular/square containers would look much more organized and aesthetically appealing versus all those round cups. Lol i don't think I'd ever get an assignment for a mantis desk project but that would be a nice side project on my spare time...or maybe some fancy mantis shelving.

Yeah, I used this stuff called Plastic Weld by Plastruct to bond the acrylic.

 
personally i go with cups cause of how many mantises i have and the fact that for me it's most practical to just go with what functions and not worry too much abt looks

though i give females ooth perches...

 
It does look nice as it is pictured. I also think with accurate cutting, you could pull off the same effect with glass without the scratching that can happen with acrylic, less expensive, though somewhat heavier.

 
Rich S said:
It does look nice as it is pictured. I also think with accurate cutting, you could pull off the same effect with glass without the scratching that can happen with acrylic, less expensive, though somewhat heavier.
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please post it if you end up making it out of glass. i'm pretty sure i've seen my dad cut glass with some sort of diamond-tipped blade.

 
Actually a simple glass cutter used for plate glass and for all types of thin glass as for window, aquaria, etc, is a cheap little device with a wheel roller that scores the glass and then one snaps it over a dowel along the score mark. Once you practice a little, it is quite simple to get clean accurate cuts. I have three larger plexiglass tanks that I found next to my dumpster about one year ago. I have used them for mantids, but they are rather tall at over fifteen inches compared to their footprint. I am using one right now for my Dynastes tityus beetles.

 

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