Abstract Schmoo Shapes

Hey, everyone! I was in The Netherlands last week to meet with some colleagues, and at one point during the meeting I was idly doodling on my pad (as I tend to do) and drew this little design of sort of Schmoo shapes in a row.

After the ridiculously intricate and time-consuming design of the octopus, I thought it would be nice to have a relatively simple design that I could finish in a weekend. To try and make the curves as smooth as possible, I laid it out in the free drafting software Solid Edge 2D.

So, here it is:

The piece is 12" x 12". Unfortunately it's not a very sunny day here in Scotland, so the colours aren't looking as bright in the pictures as they do in person. The purple bit is a deep, grape-y colour, and the orange is Spectrum wispy glass.

Here's another view:

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I made a stained glass octopus!

UPDATE: You can see the finished, framed piece here.

Hi all! Good news: today I finished soldering the stained glass octopus that I've been working on for what seems like forever.

I still need to put the lead came "frame" around the outside edges, and The Scotsman has said that he'll construct an actual wood frame for the piece. I also need to do the final cleaning to get off the fingerprints and winkle the last of the flux out of all of the little nooks & crannies. The piece is about 16.5 x 11.7 in.

I was just so happy to get it (mostly) done that I wanted to post some pictures!

The stained glass octopus with some sun coming through it. I wish you could see it in person, it looks so much cooler than photos can show.

Here's the soldering in progress. It's all full of flux.

Stained glass octopus, reverse side. He kind of looks like he's doing the Safety Dance.

A little closer up on the tentacles

Tentacle action!

So, what do you think? Would you hang it in your window? Pin It Now!

Octopus in copper

Hi everyone!

I've been working on the stained glass octopus all weekend, and I finally got all of the frillions of little suckers and pieces foiled. I'm waiting on delivery of some black glass paint to do the pupils of the octopus' eyes. (Right now I've coloured them in with black sharpie for demonstration purposes.)

All coppered up!

All those little suckers took FOREVER.

I'll be soldering and finishing the piece next weekend. Whew! This one took a while. Pin It Now!

Octopus Progress: finally finished cutting!

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Unfinished octopus.

Unfinished octopus who?

Unfinished octopus is happy to announce that despite being unfinished, at least all of those suckers are finally cut! Oh, my aching tentacles.

Hi everyone, yes, I'm still working on this never-ending stained glass octopus project. I did finally finish cutting it all out today, and even got a start on foiling.

If you recall, this is how the octopus was looking last week:

After being harangued by the Shouty Muse for the whole week, I decided the lower tentacle on the left needed to be longer, and speaking of creating multiple rods for my own back, I also decided that there needed to be another line of suckers on the left to balance the whole thing out. Why yes, I would like to do a whole lot more cutting on this piece! Thank you sir, may I have another!

New formula with 1/3 more suckers! 

So, yes. I finally finished cutting today. After much rejoicing at the prospect of not having to cut any more of those teeny little suckers, I got a start on foiling....all of those teeny little suckers.

Getting started on the copper foiling. This is going to take a while.

I really do love how the copper foil looks, though!

I knew this piece was going to take a long time, but I think I may have underestimated just how much time it was going to take. I sure do hope it turns out.

I think I'll name him Harold.

See you next time!

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