This man makes ‘Frankenstein’ sculptures from hundreds of dead insect body parts and his girlfriend is fine with it

A climbing instructor who builds “Frankenstein” sculptures using thousands of dead insect parts, which he keeps in his bedroom, has said his work helps people to “look at nature and see how much beauty there is”.

Joos Habraken, 28, a biology graduate and former taxidermist from Ghent, Belgium, who now works in a climbing gym as a route setter and instructor, typically spends between 20 and 30 hours making each of his creations – which recently went viral on social media.

Joos intends to put some of his “Frankenstein” bugs – which he gives elaborate names and backstories – into an exhibition, although he has trouble keeping hold of them due to demand from buyers.

He stores the insect parts next to his bed, something his girlfriend Amber Wynants, 27, said she is fine with as she is equally fascinated by taxidermy, conserving insects and her boyfriend’s art.

“I teach adults and kids how to climb, after hours I play with insects,” Joos said.

His eye-catching creations include Ruja, a fungus farmer and warrior whose head is taken from a grasshopper while her shiny green dress is made from the wings of insects, dragonflies and beetles.

Her green and blue locks are made from dozens of insect legs while she holds a staff made from a stick insect and beetle’s thorax.

While Hayk, an archer, holds a green bow made from two longhorn beetle antennas. His attire is made from colourful beetles to form his armour.

Joos said: “For me it’s really important that the backstory is part of it because that’s where it all comes alive.

“You start with nothing, just a steel rod and then you start looking for mythological names and looking at places where they could live.

“And then you use all of these different parts of insects to create something beautiful.”

After studying biology at Ghent University, Joos went to the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences for his masters – and it was here his passion for entomology first began.

“We had a behind-the-scenes tour of the collections and were told volunteers could take some material home to mount the insects and bring it back – it all started from there,” he said.

“I had a lot of free time so I started doing a lot of work for the museum and got to keep some broken butterflies.”

After Joos graduated in 2019 aged 25, he had a “considerable private collection” and was mounting insects to sell them until he found a job as a taxidermist nearby.

He said: “In the shop, I did my first Frankenstein bug.

“Then my contract ended and I lucked out getting a job in a climbing gym so I could follow my passion.

“About a year ago, in summer last year, I started experimenting with more character design stuff and gave my sculptures their own ecology, names and backstory.

“Now, a couple of works further on, they just keep on growing.”

For his first sculptures, Joos worked mainly with butterfly wings and gave his characters only a name or one-line description.

The Hero With A Thousand Faces was his first sculpture which received a detailed background story.

The backstory of the hero, whose face alone consists of 26 insect heads, reads: “The hero listens to the call to adventure, crosses the boundary into the underworld and meets a helper that will give him the necessary weapon, tool or wisdom to come back. After completing the road of trials and meeting with the goddess, the hero returns with the ultimate boon, the elixir of life.”

In July 2021, Joos published the story of Yooku, a sculpture portraying a “master rider”, which he considers one of his favourite pieces.

While his other sculptures were sold to art collectors, Joos has a special plan for his two newest creations, Ruja and Kiwa.

He said: “I think I’m going to keep the last two and make a series of five so I can do an exhibition.

“Every other one was always sold so I pushed the price a little higher and it was sold again – I kept pushing because I wanted to keep them but they kept getting sold.”

The insects he uses to build the sculptures are dead but the artwork keeps its shape as their bodies don’t decay.

“They just stay like this because they are made of Keratin, the same structure as your hair and your nails,” Joos explained.

New material for his creations is relatively easy to come by as he owns a lot of old insect collections he takes apart for his work.

He said: “I have this little carpenter box that they used for screws and bolts and I put the heads, wings and legs in there.

“I pick a match and find colours that go together.

“If you use just a little bit of superglue it sticks really fast but you still have to be gentle.”

Once he runs out of parts the artist will be able to rely upon a steady flow of new dead insects coming in, thanks to his contacts.

He said: “I now have a network where people know I collect insects.

“So if somebody has some stick or leaf insects they let me know when they die so I can use those.

“They come to me – I never have to get them and would never kill any insects to make my works.”

Joos’ girlfriend Amber, an art teacher, said she was “star-struck” when she first met him because of his artistic skills.

“I always liked taxidermy as long as there’s no animal harm of course,” she said.

“I was actually a bit star-struck when I met Joos because I really liked his work already.”

Amber, who is also fascinated by character design, animation and sculpting, said she and Joos talked about a potential collaboration in the future – “maybe animating one of the characters”, she said.

Joos added: “I would love to see my characters animated at some point.”

He got into making his unusual sculptures through his love for insects, saying: “I love looking at them and I really like that insect parts are a work of art on their own.

“You have this little piece that’s already made by evolution, that has its own functions, colours and hairs, so I just make sure that I have a lot of detail in my work.”

For his Hero With A Thousand Faces, Joos used about 70 bug pieces.

This quickly increased once he started adding more detail to his artwork and his most recent sculpture includes more than 100 beetle legs and about 200 pieces in total.

While his characters usually take him about 20 to 30 hours of work, his newest creation took him close to 40 because of the intricate designs.

This process can take several weeks as each sculpture – usually between 10 and 15 centimetres tall – can only be worked on after Joos has finished work at the climbing gym.

While Joos said he wants to grow his reputation in insect art naturally, he has already reached thousands of people and amassed nearly 23,000 likes within a day of posting his newest sculpture, Ruja, on social media platform Reddit on October 2.

“I like that it sparks a discussion,” he said.

“It’s just nice that people get to look at nature and see how much beauty there is.”

For his next sculpture, Joos has already laid out black and white insect parts, aiming for a monochrome look.

He said: “I wanted to do this for a long time but I’ve never had enough white pieces. It will be a warrior with a lot of black and then some white accents.”

To see Joos’s future creations on Instagram, visit: @schroothoop