Aki designs the shells to look like famous architectural locations, like Tokyo or Santorini. They’re so beautiful that the crabs look like they’re carrying diamonds on their backs.

Designs include the New York skyline and a row of Low Countries windmills. "Though the body of the hermit crab is the same, according to the shell it is wearing," Inomata writes.

Hermit crabs are small crabs that carry shells on their backs, both for a home and for safety. But with shells being harder ...

These designs are then printed in plastic using local manufacturing and hardware. The test shells are being used by domestic hermit crabs in habitats in both Brooklyn and Los Angeles.

A Tokyo-based artist has created hermit crab shells adorned with miniature cityscapes. Aki Inomata used a CT scanner to map the interior of sea shells before manufacturing the designs using 3D ...

The designs were 3D printed in clear plastic to lend them a jewel-like aesthetic that displays the colors of the crabs inside. The hermit crabs were then presented with the plastic shells, and ...

07-30-2013 DESIGN An Artist Gives Hermit Crabs Crazy New Homes Haven’t you heard? Hermit crab populations are becoming increasingly homeless. Aki Inomata thinks they all deserve custom houses.

TOWNSHEND — Over 25 years ago, Robert DuGrenier happened upon a hermit crab wearing a broken Coca-Cola bottle as a shell. He was visiting the Bahamas, and the critter scuttled across his beach blanket ...

Artist Miles Lightwood is the leader of Project Shellter, a crowd-sourced effort to design 3D printed shells for use in the pet hermit crab industry (Photo: MakerBot Industries) ...

Despite the curb appeal of her creations, getting the hermit crabs to inhabit the stylish shells required clever urban planning from Inomata. "At first I thought hermit crabs could fit into any ...