Octobits

A few months ago I saw a fascinating show investigating the brain power of octopi.  And they sure have it!  There was one scene in the show - too complicated and off the subject to describe here - that I don't think I'll ever forget.  In fact, I can "play it back" for myself now as I think of it.

Being always on the mental look-out for ideas for extravangant beading pieces, it seemed that an octopus could make a focal point for a pretty cool necklace.  And yesterday was the day that I was inspired to sculpt her.  She was pretty challenging.  And much of the detail - the suckers on the tentacles - it turns out that you can't see anyway.  But that's OK since I may very well make more for other purposes where the suckers will show.

But now I'm not so sure what I'll do with her.  She's rather large (she's on an 8" tile in the photo) which isn't a problem in itself for a necklace.  But the tentacles are probably somewhat fragile.  So for a necklace, I should have cut them in sections then reassemble the sections on the beading backing.  I could probably still cut them with a jeweler's saw but it might be risky.  So I tried to think of other ideas and all I could come up with was the lid of a decorative box.

The items around her are the things I had that might look good with her in the beading.  The little sand dollars and the sharks' teeth are fossilized, as are the split and polished ammonites.  (I remember collecting these sharks' teeth on family vacations in Florida when I was a kid so many years ago.)  I also have a Roman coin that I bought on eBay but I forgot to put it in the picture.

I'm not ready to start the beading yet since I still must decide what I'm going to make, so I'll just ponder things for a while.