Sunday, March 4, 2012

Project 12: Squid Lamp

You know those CNN "News of the Weird" stories about Japanese fishermen who haul up a tuna net and find there, entangled in the netting, some huge squid monster? It just goes to show you, they're out there ....




This is the best I could do on my point and click camera, I promise it looks more monstrous and imposing in person.





Started with a beautiful piece of wood from some folks up in northern Wisconsin who have a basswood forest behind their house. They make their living the old fashioned way - keep a stockpile of seasoned wood, cut it to order and ship UPS. That must be the life. The squid will never find them there.






The legs were really fun to shape - very tricky to keep them swirling in all the right directions.






Finding the right globe was a grueling task, involving antique store scouring, surreptitious inspection of fixtures when visiting other apartments, fruitless wandering through the lighting district, scores of search terms and thousands of web clicks. (To save you the trouble, this is the Lowe's Harbor Breeze).




Finished legs, looking squidlike. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an animal adjective for "squidlike." The problem with this language is that it's so hard to express ... anything!





Bioluminescing in the deep ocean.





Ensnaring a whale!