Puke Ariki Museum — Tree Weta (2016)
Life-sized tree weta sculpture fabricated for Puke Ariki Museum, New Plymouth — cast in fibreglass over a welded steel armature, with hand-painted finishes.
In 2016, Puke Ariki Museum in New Plymouth approached Human Dynamo Workshop to fabricate a large-scale tree weta sculpture for their natural history collection. This was our second tree weta build — we already had the moulds from a previous commission, and Puke Ariki wanted a faithful match to the original.
The model was cast in polyester resin fibreglass and built around a welded steel armature for structural strength. It was airbrushed and hand-painted in detail, then hard-coated for a glossy, durable finish that holds up to gallery handling and lighting.
Tree weta (pūrerehua) are one of Aotearoa's most distinctive native insects — large, ancient and rarely seen at full size. A scaled-up sculptural model lets visitors look closely at the anatomy and texture of a creature most New Zealanders will never encounter in the wild.
