Oseberg and Kraken by Glen McGuire - FINISHED - Bottle - 1/250

[Ian_Grant]

Great idea Glen!  I think you'll need to scuff up the insulation quite a bit to get clay to stick.

Edited February 13, 2023 by Ian_Grant

[Landlubber Mike]

Great start on the Kraken - very clever!

[FriedClams]

A clever approach for the tentacles.  Such an interesting build.

 

Gary

[Javelin]

Great solution indeed. It'll take quite some clay, but it's a very good shape holder. Tapering the ends won't be easy though, I guess you'd have to add clay at the top rather than try to taper the cable. 

Will she be getting a head/mouth at the center? Or just teeth sticking out of the water? 

[Louie da fly]

You can taper those cables by stripping off the plastic sheathing far enough back to expose the wires, and then gradually reduce the number of them as you get further and further along toward the tip, right down to a single wire. Then cover with clay or possibly some other "goo". 

 

I'd recommend you practice that with some cable that you're not going to use until you get on top of the technique.

 

Steven

[Glen McGuire]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.  I definitely need it for this part of the project!  I have not made much actual progress in the past couple of weeks, as I've been trying out some various ideas (some good, some bad), and going to Youtube U for some clay sculpting lessons.  But I think I've finally zeroed in on a plan, so I hope to get some real work done this week. 

 

On 2/13/2023 at 4:11 PM, Ian_Grant said:

Great idea Glen!  I think you'll need to scuff up the insulation quite a bit to get clay to stick.

Thanks, Ian.  It did not occur to me to scuff the insulation up a bit.  I had tested the clay on a small piece of the insulated wire before I saw your post and, surprisingly, it stuck quite well.  However, I like your scuffing idea so I'm going to do that on the real ones.

 

On 2/22/2023 at 10:23 AM, Javelin said:

Tapering the ends won't be easy though, I guess you'd have to add clay at the top rather than try to taper the cable. 

That's the first thing I tried to do on a practice tentacle.  It looked ok, but I was worried about it cracking and/or breaking off.

 

On 2/22/2023 at 10:23 AM, Javelin said:

Will she be getting a head/mouth at the center? Or just teeth sticking out of the water? 

Yes - head and mouth and maybe eyes barely protruding out of the water.  Of course that assumes I can sculpt something from the clay that does not look too ridiculous.  A large assumption there!  See pic below for very rough idea of what the head and mouth may (or may not) resemble!  I repeat, it's a rough draft, so no laughing allowed!

 

On 2/24/2023 at 10:52 PM, Louie da fly said:

You can taper those cables by stripping off the plastic sheathing far enough back to expose the wires, and then gradually reduce the number of them as you get further and further along toward the tip, right down to a single wire. Then cover with clay or possibly some other "goo". 

 

I'd recommend you practice that with some cable that you're not going to use until you get on top of the technique.

Yes to all of that, Steve!  I stripped it as you said, then twirled the exposed end against the side of my bench grinder to taper the ends.  A few wires got a bit unruly and had to be snipped, but overall I think the taper came out ok.  

 

 

  

[gjdale]

25 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Yes - head and mouth and maybe eyes barely protruding out of the water.  Of course that assumes I can sculpt something from the clay that does not look too ridiculous. 

 

Just a thought Glen, but you could try some "googly eyes" (readily available on Amazon/ebay) - though they might not pass the "too ridiculous" test........

[Louie da fly]

5 hours ago, Glen McGuire said:

I think the taper came out ok.  

So do I.

[Glen McGuire]

9 hours ago, gjdale said:

Just a thought Glen, but you could try some "googly eyes" (readily available on Amazon/ebay) - though they might not pass the "too ridiculous" test........

As usual, Grant, you've got it figured out!  These just arrived from Amazon ($7).  Now it's just a matter of picking a pair!  Probably let my color consultant friend decide.  

[Keith Black]

 Glen, my vote is the green vertical slit eyes bottom far right or the yellower pair to the top left of first choice.  

 

 This image came up after searching Google for 'Kraken eyes'

Edited February 28, 2023 by Keith Black

[Knocklouder]

Green pair bottom right of the orange pair, or the yellow pair left of the orange ones in the right hand corner as well . It's going to be epic  😎 either way.

[Ian_Grant]

17 hours ago, gjdale said:

 

Just a thought Glen, but you could try some "googly eyes" (readily available on Amazon/ebay) - though they might not pass the "too ridiculous" test........

You could also buy glass "bird eyes" that carvers use. They're available in various sizes and colours like here:

 

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/supplies/project-materials/31066-bird-eyes

 

 

[Glen McGuire]

Time to try and bring this idea to life (or an untimely death!).  I bought a 2 pound package of DAS air-dry modeling clay at Michael's, which is supposed to be good for beginners.  Then a friend told me I was making this way too difficult.  I should just go get a "Cranky the Octopus" Play-Doh set for this thing and be done with it!.  

Dang!  Why didn't I think of that.  But since I was so far down the road with my Youtube sculpting classes, etc, I decided to stick with the original plan.  Here's the modeling clay I got.

 

 

First step was adding a somewhat smooth layer of clay to the copper wire tentacles.  I didn't smooth it out completely as I think variations and imperfections will make it look more realistic.   

Next was figuring out what to do with the suckers.  First, I tried some beads, but I really did not like the way they looked.  Too perfect.  Too uniform.  One of the Youtube tutorials I watched had a person making coral.  They rolled the clay into little balls and made things that looked like suckers to me.  So I tried that and I liked them better than the beads.  Again, I wanted variation rather than uniformity.  Here's a side-by-side.

 

 

Once that decision was made, I spent a couple of hours rolling little clay balls of various sizes and indenting the centers.

 

And here's what the shortest tentacle looks like with suckers added.  I am using CA glue to attach them one at a time.  Gonna be a long process!

 

 

 

 

Edited March 1, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[Ian_Grant]

Looks great, Glen!  I see this clay is air-hardening, not needing a bake. Even better!

[Keith Black]

 Glen, that suckered tentacle looks really good, the suckers look very realistic.  Great start. 

[Glen McGuire]

3 hours ago, Ian_Grant said:

I see this clay is air-hardening, not needing a bake. Even better!

Absolutely!  The simpler the better!

[Landlubber Mike]

Great decision on how to do the suction cups - looks fantastic!  

[Louie da fly]

That tentacle looks amazing!

 

Steven

[FriedClams]

Never thought I'd be saying this, but your tentacle and suckers look great.

 

Gary

[Glen McGuire]

54 minutes ago, FriedClams said:

Never thought I'd be saying this, but your tentacle and suckers look great.

I have no words...🤣🤣🤣

[Keith Black]

56 minutes ago, FriedClams said:

Never thought I'd be saying this

 Frankly, I'm a bit uneasy saying "I think your tentacles look great" I make sure the spelling is correct several times before hitting enter. 

[gjdale]

1 hour ago, FriedClams said:

Never thought I'd be saying this, but your tentacle and suckers look great.

 

I’m now mopping up the cup of tea I just sprayed all over my iPad screen!!!

[mtaylor]

3 hours ago, FriedClams said:

Never thought I'd be saying this, but your tentacle and suckers look great.

 

Gary

[BANYAN]

I'll hopefully stay away from any inuendo and simply say your creations are looking great Glen .  Oh, and I still think a couple of spears sticking out of those creations will look great    Sorry, couldn't help it., my fingers just kept typing.

 

cheers

 

Pat

Edited March 2, 2023 by BANYAN

[Glen McGuire]

Thank you for the comments, particularly the ones that flatter my tentacles.  Yes, tentacles.  Whew!  Thank you to @Keith Black for reminding me to run spell check!

 

Speaking of tentacles, I added suckers to the longer ones sticking out of the base.  But I was not quite satisfied.  I thought the suckers looked glued on, rather than naturally extending from the body of the tentacles.  So back to the Youtube videos where one showed how to fill in gaps and smooth transitions with what they called "slip".  Interesting term, I thought.  To make slip, you just add water to the clay till it becomes a paste.  Then you just spread it on and let it dry.  Sounds simple, but It took some experimentation to get just the right mixture.  Surprisingly, the clay and water do not mix very easily.  Hard to get the lumps out and get a good consistency.

 

The first pic shows a tentacle right after I glued on the suckers.  The 2nd shows what it looks like as I started adding the slip.  

 

The last pic shows all the tentacles cradling the bottle.      

Edited March 3, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[Knocklouder]

Looking good, those slips really add realism to the t e n t a c l e s .  Like I said this will be epic!! 

[Keith Black]

Using slip made a big difference in the way the tentacles look and the way the bottle is being held is fantastic, Glen. I can see the fear in Ragnar and his crew's eyes now!  

 

50 minutes ago, Glen McGuire said:

Hard to get the lumps out and get a good consistency.

 I know your wife has an electric hand mixer....."look Honey, it washes right off"      

[gjdale]

Your slipped tentacles look great Glen, even if it does sound painful! 🥴

[Glen McGuire]

The crux of this project begins - making a reasonable looking Kraken head and mouth surfacing just out of the water.  I decided to start with the mouth.  From Jules Verne's description in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, he described the mouth as such:

 

"The monster’s mouth—a beak made of horn and shaped like that of a parrot—opened and closed vertically. Its tongue, also of horn substance and armed with several rows of sharp teeth, would flicker out from between these genuine shears."

 

For the "beak", I cut a couple of triangles from a thin layer of clay and folded the 2 ends toward each other to form the upper and lower halves. 

 

 

For the tongue, I was trying to figure out what to use for the "rows of sharp teeth" when an idea hit me.  In 2015, my son and I took a vacation to the DC area and spent a couple of days driving down the southern coastline of Chesapeake Bay.  We ended up spending most of a day swimming at a beach near the Calvert Cliffs.  My son found dozens of these tiny shark teeth that had washed ashore.  We found out later that these were prehistoric teeth and very common for that area.  He had kept a bunch of the teeth and I thought they might be perfect for my Kraken.  So I picked several of the smaller ones and stuck them in a clay tongue.

  

Next, I decided to get a couple of cans of Play Doh to shape a rough Kraken head rather than wasting the more expensive modeling clay in case things totally bombed.

 

 

I thought it was passable, so decided to forge ahead and start shaping the real thing.  Here's where it is now.  I will let it dry and then figure out what it needs to get to its final shape.  Definitely some smoothing out.  Maybe beef up the "shoulders' where the tentacles come out of the body.  The 2 attached tentacles are not tapered at the ends as they will simply disappear into the water.   

 

  

Edited March 7, 2023 by Glen McGuire

[BANYAN]

That's looking so good Glen; you could get a second job in movie model making.

 

cheers

 

Pat