Thanks to a generous, interesting and interested physicist I met at recent show who mailed me a pair of Buddy Holly-esque Scientific Polarized Lenses, I can now see the secret colors of SOME beetles, like this flower beetle’s shadey alter ego.

This is a pair of brass tweezers I use while making the work for Insect Lab.  I thought it would be an appropriate first blog post as it is the one constant most frequently used tool in my arsenal.

I can’t recall where I got it, though  I have used it on every single Insect Lab sculpture I’ve worked on for the past 6 years, (except for 3 days back in 2008).  Why, first, it’s brass, a nonferrous metal, so it’s not magnetic, which is great because if it were 50% of the gears screws and springs I pickup would always be sticking to it. and I already have enough “sticking” issues with glue.

Second, it’s broad and flat, with no angled neck or paddled bit, the long beak of the pinchers allow me to manage into tight areas, too, both to carefully remove a part from a watch or to place a gear inside a beetle. It’s a good simple design, I suspect Danish, but “INDIA” is stamped one the other side.

Third, I like the spring strength it has.  Not too weak, not too stiff, just right…Every now and again I have to adjust or flatten or file the tip a little back into shape, it’s likely a quarter inch shorter than it was 6 years ago.  Occassionally, a part I’m holidng will all of a sudden rocket out from the tension of the pinchers, springing across the room, and I can only listen to the small metallic pinging ricochet of metal on wall, then floor, so I can recover the launched gear or dial.  During these moments I curse these tweezers for not being 100% successful in tweezing.

But still I go back to them because they are good and reliable and a natural part of  how my fingers move while making.

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