Sorry, no photos yet of ants in stone, but below are three images of ants in iron. Santos made some early ants with a stick welder after the manner of Joe Perez with scorpions. Legs and antenna were stamped into the hot iron.
At Tom Lupton's Architectural Iron Works of Austin the ant design was further refined. The bodies are now MIGed over pieces of TIG rod for legs and antenna. Then the appendages are torch hot bent and TIGed down. Eyes and abdomen banding are torch hot stamped.
Ant shown below on one of the many massive prickly pear forgings by Nick Brumder and David Santos. Prickly pears have long been the trademark of Santos' and the late Joe Perez's collaborations in iron. Nick Brumder was able to greatly advance many of the existing designs.
Santos is shown torch bending ant legs on the pedestrian side of the gate. Note oversize scale of ants.
Close-up of two ants interacting.
Thanks for flying PolyCosmos.
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