Well, as Karl has mentioned our lab will be participating as a horde of zooplankton in the KW Procession of Species Parade. The parade is as much about encouragaing local expressions of art as it is about showcasing biodiversity. With that in mind we set out yesterday to stretch our creativity and construct a prototype of our first costume. We decided that Daphnia would be our main inspiration and started on a carapace and post abdomen...the head and rostrum will be for another night (yikes, I can't believe we will have to make several more of these)!
We began by creating a exoskeleton of sorts out of chicken coop wire.
Kyle may have built several fences is his lifetime but Britt's fast and furious fingers had the wire weave down in no time!
Ingrid and I cut out a post abdomen...here Brittany serves as our model...
... and also demonstrates how her arms and fingers will become the antennae.
As you can see, there are most likely a few late nights ahead of us to pull off these costumes. But we are looking forward to improving our paper mache skills and finding balloons of the perfect colour to act as diapausing eggs. Stay tuned for more photos and updates as we continue this project!