Several years ago, Julie Alice Chappell came across a box of discarded electronic parts and something in her mind just clicked.
“The first thing that came into my head when I looked at them was, ‘a mass of tiny bodies and legs…ants!’,” she said in a blog post.
She took the discarded scraps home and made ants with her kids.

A few years later, Chappell came across another box and suddenly her eyes were opened to a whole new world of creatures.
Over the years, she’s collected everything from circuit boards used to create robots to tiny components found in video game cartridges.

“The recycled bits of cultural refuse that are woven throughout my work represent a direct encounter with the excesses of modern living,” Chappell said.

She continued: “[They highlight] the dangers of planned obsolescence and e-waste in the environment.”
“The work displays an aesthetic beauty whilst offering a socio-political discourse, attempting to reclaim waste and the destruction of the natural world, in the beauty of visual art.”