Craig Wisen wanted to cast a spider, but unfortunately his attempt resulted in complete failure. The wax spider he carved seemed like a caricature, looked like a toy and wasn't scary at all.

So Wisen found another way.

The 43-year-old assistant professor in the School of Management decided to turn to nature for real tarantulas. He bought a variety of dried insects and arachnids on eBay and used the creepy-crawly corpses, instead of carving wax, to get the right shape.

"Sometimes I feel like a hack because I let Mother Nature create the subject," Wisen said. "I'm not good at carving and I know that. You have to use your strength."

One of Wisen's strengths is in making different alloys. He also made a tarantula using a combination of gold and copper. The effect differed greatly from his other pieces, but the less lustrous mixture of metals doesn't contrast with the subject matter as much as using pure silver does.

And with silver, you get more bang for your buck at $13 per ounce, at least one eighth the price of gold.

Keep in mind these bugs are the same size as ones found in the nature.

Normally in lost wax casting, the wax carving is placed in a cylinder and investment is poured around it. Then the wax, or in this case the dead spider is burned out, then the silver is poured in.

Wisen encountered several complications. It's not possible to cast a whole spider. The legs had to be removed and done separately, then reattached with a number of pins. The winged insects came with their own problems. Although they are smaller, in order for the wings to be thick enough to cast they have to be covered by layers and layers of glue. This allows them to be thicker but still keep the shape and definition.

Advanced metalworking professor Jack Finch said Wisen, who has taken eight semesters of metalworking, impresses him.

"He is a very unusual and resourceful student; he is always here and always experimenting," Finch said. "Casting bugs is difficult enough and he makes a lot of them and also makes his own alloys."

Wisen was effusive about the class calling it the "best class on campus." Finch, who allows his more advanced students a great deal of freedom to experiment and even allows them to fail occasionally, equally impressed him.

This is Wisen's fifth winter here. He is still impressed by Alaskans as a whole and says the people here are much friendlier than in the Lower 48. He loves his job here at the university.

"The students at UAF aren't normal students," he said. "They're not spoiled and they don't whine about small crap. Misery loves company, and I think the whole dark winter makes people come together."