Sea Anemone Inspires

Sea Anemone
Underwater creatures just fascinate me.  Their colors and shapes and habitats capture my imagination.  No I don’t scuba dive or snorkel because …well to be honest I’ve always been scared of the water.  It took me two summers to pass the beginning Red Cross Swimming class.  I’ve learned to enjoy the sea life in glass bottom boats and aquariums.  I’ve also learned I can take really good pictures in those places.

My photo of a sea anemone inspired me to make a polymer clay necklace.  Actually, I’ve been thinking for months about how to construct the necklace.  When ‘My Clay Fantasy’ (a FB group) had their recent ‘Underwater Creatures’ competition, it was just the push I needed. 
I started with Skinner blends ranging white to fuchsia and yellow to green.  Then I stacked layers including translucent clay to make striped canes.  Graduating the colors from yellow to green to fuchsia gave a fun 3-D effect.  
 A circle of paper formed into a shallow cone became the base for the dome and I cured it first.  Then I formed the 3 petals (twice because the first group were way too large.) and placed 3 rhinestones inside the petals.  I’m sure there is another name for the anemone’s curls but I don’t know what to call them.  I added a slice from the dome cane for the back cover. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/invertebrates/seaanemone/Seaanemoneprintout.shtml
The petals were attached to the dome and cured. 
Back of piece
3 curls
While that was going on, I made extruded a long rope and cut it in 1” lengths, rolled the ends thin, and formed them in tentacle and cured those. 
Tentacles
Now that I had all the parts, I decided to see if I could drill a hole in the dome and insert a tentacle.  It worked!  Lots more holes were drilled and I inserted the tentacles with Sculpey Bake and Bond. 
It worked and it is a technique I will refine.  I happened to have a pink thick string and made the chain.  The project is finished and I’m pretty happy with it.  Yes, I did enter it in the competition!
 
Finished Piece
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Location: Prescott, AZ, USA

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