Etsy seller OctopusMe has metal jewelry made from real octopi octopusses. I’m not sure I want to know how it’s done. Tentacles hanging from your earlobes would be an instant conversation starter. Link -via Dump Trumpet
You just throw it in a special plaster called investment and let it dry. Then, throw it in a kiln at 1400 degrees and burn out the flesh. Melt in some silver, and presto.
Looks cool but can it be done with killing the octopi? Who knows that octopi are smarter than dogs? When I worked on fishing boats up in Alaska fishermen would tell tales of how smart they were, how they would know where they were when caught and try to get out. But there was also a Michael Crichton book I was reading at the time (before he went nuts), Sphere maybe, that talked about how smart octopi were. I couldn't wear something or give it as a gift something that was smarter than a dog. Deserves better.
Also, take up your moral dilemmas with all of Asia, I really don't think they have had a problem eating cephalopods, and sometimes dogs for that matter, for many many generations.
i wonder if they would be able to make spoons out of small tortoises, ear rings with lil fishes and also garden fountains with dolphins.. don't you think so?? It would be a cool evidence to show that the person was related to the sea..
The thing is, a person with any sculpting skill at all could make something like this without needing to harm an octopus. Seriously, look at it: a tube for the tentacle, and then a bunch of circles stuck on, for the suction cups. A second-grader could sculpt that. Even if they're buying dead octopuses, and not actually killing live octopuses for this process... Why bother? Just sculpt the darn things! It's an intersting-looking object, I like the idea of octopus-themed jewelry... But using a REAL octopus for this is just gross.
Kudos to Ursula for not falling for the oh-so annoying [and incorrect] pluralization "octopi". Octopus doesn't come from Latin, so the -us doesn't go to -i in the plural. But even if it did, it's an english word (no roman ever said the word octopus), so it follows the usual rules for pluralization.
The only alternative plural you could possibly use is the ancient Greek - which is where the 'pus' comes from. It means 'feet', and the plural is podes. So you won't hear me rant if I see the word 'octopodes', but I'll still think you're annoying :)
As for the ring, I think it's beautiful. I don't see anything wrong with it - as long as the jeweler isn't catching the animals for the sole purpose of casting their little legs.
Sorry, Ursula, you'd have to be a world-class sculptor in order to pick up the surface detail of that tentacle.
Sculpting wax isn't as simple as just mushing it around like an autistic kid as you seem to think. That's like saying anyone could carve David, you just chip away all the rock that doesn't look like him.
I was recently devastated to learn the plural was not 'octopi'. And then I read an example in which 'octopoda' was used and this I can get down with. And I eat octopus.
Anthony - burning the flesh out of the investment would probably leave too much residue even at 1400 degrees, so you'd get inclusions in the silver, or just areas missing. also going through the lost-wax process means you can sculpt exactly what you need to happen - i have a feeling that an octopus tentacle wouldn't cooperate that well. it also means you can make copies...
silver is usually cast in a centrifuge to make sure it gets right into the investment - the amounts used for a ring. are too small to ensure gravity feed :)
Lost wax does not insure multiples. You lose the wax you've just carved. You could use a silicone mold to cast your wax, but that's expensive, more expensive than octopus legs anyway.
Having cast insects, paper, corn husks, branches, and other organic materials in bronze and silver, I am confident you could burn out a small part of an octopus.
Anthony - I have no experience sculpting in wax, but plenty of experience sculpting with Sculpey and other materials... and I can tell you that sculpting tentacles is wonderfully simple. I have to fight the tempation to put tentacles on every little monster I make, because tentacles are a cinch and they always look deceptively complicated and fiddly. First I'll make a bunch of little circles (the suction cups) and fire those, then I'll make the tube of the tentacles and I'll stick the fired, firm suction cups on, and fire that. Presto: a tentacle! And that surface detailing would also be easy to duplicate with a toothpick or pressing in a piece of some other material.
I'm assuming (and hoping) this artist ISN'T killing the octopus, but they could avoid any ethical questions (and boost their crafter street cred) by sculpting the thing instead of using animal meat.
It seems foolish and wasteful to harm, if not kill a beautiful and intelligent creature to "honor" it, as the website seems to attempt to advertise. If the artist has any respect for her subjects, she'll start working on her sculpting skills and stop either hunting these animals or supporting wasteful and environmentally unsound fish markets. If you respect this animal, you will not purchase this ridiculous, wasteful and hypocritical jewelry to feed your own vanity. If you are wiling to purchase an item like this, you clearly are mistaken in believing that your temporary appearance is worth the pain and suffering and impending endangerment of a creature that belongs to an earth far superior to your singular existence.
I think that this is a very interesting and one of a kind piece even though Passerby is right; if you want to honor an animal, leave it alone. I'm sure cutting off the octopus arm would harm it, but thankfully they have seven other arms and possess the ability to regenerate a new one. (:
My ... friend ... wants to know.
The only alternative plural you could possibly use is the ancient Greek - which is where the 'pus' comes from. It means 'feet', and the plural is podes. So you won't hear me rant if I see the word 'octopodes', but I'll still think you're annoying :)
As for the ring, I think it's beautiful. I don't see anything wrong with it - as long as the jeweler isn't catching the animals for the sole purpose of casting their little legs.
Sculpting wax isn't as simple as just mushing it around like an autistic kid as you seem to think. That's like saying anyone could carve David, you just chip away all the rock that doesn't look like him.
silver is usually cast in a centrifuge to make sure it gets right into the investment - the amounts used for a ring. are too small to ensure gravity feed :)
Having cast insects, paper, corn husks, branches, and other organic materials in bronze and silver, I am confident you could burn out a small part of an octopus.
I'm assuming (and hoping) this artist ISN'T killing the octopus, but they could avoid any ethical questions (and boost their crafter street cred) by sculpting the thing instead of using animal meat.