This artist creates humanoid sculptures by repurposing dead insect parts - which he sells for £446 a piece.<br /><br />Joos Habraken, 28, creates bug creatures, measuring eight to 15-centimeters tall, each containing between 30 and 100 pieces of dead insect.<br /><br />Each sculpture can contain parts from up to 30 individual insects including beetles, grasshoppers, mantises and butterflies.<br /><br />Joos harvests the bug body parts from insects he finds on walks or purchases them from wholesalers.<br /><br />To make the sculptures, Joos takes apart the bugs, grinds down the pieces and mounts them on a stick before gluing them together.<br /><br />Joos, a climbing instructor and route setter, from Ghent, Belgium, said: "The hardest part is getting the details right, because you're using 30 different bugs, so you don't know if the head will fit the body."<br /><br />Each piece takes between 30 and 40 hours of work and Joos makes three or four pieces a year.<br /><br />So far, he has sold every piece he has made, with the exception of the last three, as he is preparing for an exhibition.<br /><br />The sculptures now sell for more than £400 a piece.<br /><br />The figures come with their own detailed backstories and portray characters and species from a fictional universe.<br /><br />They are inspired by archetypes or idealised versions of concepts such as "hero" or "warrior".<br /><br />Joos added: "I feel like I'm creating a new species with a new life and story.<br /><br />"I start with an archetype like father, mother, witch or benevolent king. These are things that people know, without them knowing they recognise them.<br /><br />"It's definitely therapeutic and meditative to create these, but I don't think about what it brings to me, it's just the creation of something beautiful.<br /><br />"100% of the time people are interested when I tell them, they ask what I mean, then I show them and they love them.<br /><br />"Sometimes I don't touch my art for a month. You just don't always have the time, but it's always nice to come back and see the work come together, that moment is just a super good feeling."
