Clockwork Crawlies: Lifelike Insects from Watch Parts

You definitely haven't seen bugs like these before. Sculptor Justin Gershenson-Gates has recently started crafting insects and arachnids with watch parts and various other odds and ends, creating some unique creatures that are remarkably similar to their living inspirations.

Gates, a jeweler currently based in Chicago, makes a living crafting unique earrings, necklaces and pendants from discarded watch parts. ABC News even recently called his work "instantly classic."

But when Gates is not crafting adornments, he's taking his inspiration from nature, making incredibly detailed sculptures based on praying mantises, dragon flies, arachnids, and even your occasional hornet.

His praying mantises are often displayed in glass cases, making them look like real entomological specimens. It is only after closer inspection that you realize that their bulbous eyes are actually parts used for winding and setting a watch. In nature these massive eyes help the mantis hunt, as predators its size traditionally lack acute hearing.

While also remarkably accurate in size to the real insects, Gates often neglects to include a mantis's psuedopupils - dark dots in the center of each multi-faceted eye that help block potentially blinding head-on light.

A black widow design - his 59th spider design crafted since 2011 - boasts a red lightbulb abdomen painted black to show the tell-tale red hourglass of the Latrodectu genus. Of course not all black widows boast this telling mark in reality. The Mediterranean black widow, for instance, is traditionally black with an abdomen sporting exactly thirteen red spots - causing it to look much like an inverted ladybug from afar.

Still, all Gates' spider sculptures are complete with appropriately spindly legs. Three thick segments ending in a fine tip for grip and sensitivity - just as seen in nature - are crafted from soldered pieces of watch-band bars. Some even sport abdomens of spooled wire, serving as pseudo web spinners for his orb-weaver designs.

Most amazing of all is not Gates' incredible knack for detail, but his ability to maintain accurate size. The spiders and mayfly designs are often presented on his hands or next to a coin, displaying incredibly tiny sizes only millimeters off from the real thing.

Whether this accuracy is due to studied work, or simply the remarkable eye of an artist, it's hard not to be at least initially fooled by these clever clockwork designs. Gates recently told Colossal reporters that he can spend up to 12 hours straight on one design, unable to set it down until it is utterly complete.

If you want to get your hands on one of these sculptures, you can find them at Etsy, or at the Lill Street Craft Fair at the Taste of Lincoln in Chicago on July 26-27.