Hitchhiker

About the design:

In Kansas, in early summer, female cottonwood trees shed what seems like tons of little fluffy seeds that fill the air like a set for the movie Legend. Later in summer we get milkweed seeds, which are larger and not as lofty, but are still pretty fluffy. Sitting on my deck watching seeds float by, I was struck one day by the idea of hitching a ride and seeing where I would end up. Unfortunately, I am far too large for such an endeavor, so I created this little guy to take a ride in my place. He's loosely patterned after the smallest dragonfly species in the world, called the Scarlet dwarf (Nannophya pygmaea). They are only 20mm (3/4 inch) long and are native to Southeast Asia. He's riding on a seed of the butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa), which also produces large displays of bright reddish-orange flowers.

Released in 2009