Jewelry made from cast octopus tentacles

Etsy seller OctopusMe makes jewelry out of octopus tentacles, recast in sterling silver -- rings, earrings, and assorted pieces in handsome sucker style.

This ring is made from a REAL Octopus tentacle which has drilled, carved, shaped and cast in Sterling Silver! This ring is definitely one of my favorites. I like it because it's versatile. It looks different from all angles when you spin it around your finger! It has a nice sexy flowing curve to it. The texture on it is amazing! And, it has all of those cute little suction cups flowing all around the ring! There is a nice weight and chunkiness to the piece. Oh, and the best part is that it's Sushi Grade! Ha ha ha! It looks great on both guys and gals!! Make sure to get yours at this special price!!

Link (via Neatorama)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Tenn

Squid can be cooked tender, but every time that I’ve had octopus, it’s been like trying to chew the sole of a shoe.

Raw octopus is like chewing… I don’t quite know how to explain it. It ‘pops’ like tight sausage casing made from real intestine, but instead of firmness beneath, there’s a briny taste and some flesh and some liquidyness.

It would probably be more pleasant if I didn’t have to consume three in a race. They were vivid purple and small. Ate them whole; the tentacles are more chewy, the head goes SPLOOSH.

Very, very briny. Prepared or with some sort of sauce, I could see them being more tasty. Squid is fantastic, though. We tell my brother calamari is ‘Italian french fries’ since we usually get it at the best Italian restaurant in the area. He loves it. We got my grandmother to try it, and then I told her it was squid- she spat it out despite liking it before.
Antinous

Have you ever driven by a cattle yard? At least fruits de mer get a regular bath.
error404

@Agent 86

I’ve twigged it.

It’s getting the tentacles laid out flat then spraying them with a fast setting latex moaulding liquid. Probably with a small reservoir wall built around them.

Allow the latex to set and peel it away.

Now depending on the durability of the mould you could either pour molten waxm the good red stuff used for making lost wax models.

Mow you’d have a series of straight wax tentacles, wioth all the detail.

Either carve out the back of these, as you notice they are hollow/slip cast, then form them around a mandril to get the right size, or I think more likely form them to size then carve out the backs with a hot wire.

Now, if the Shank is open you could use that to tweak up or down a few sizes, which would help.

After that it is a straight forward lost wax method casting.

I could be wrong but this seems about right.

It’s a lot of work.

I like them
Xopher

I just think this would be a really uncomfortable ring to actually wear. Bumps between the fingers == not good.
Takuan

savages
Antinous

Oh! You mean it’s a finger ring. I thought that was the actual size.
cha0tic

Mr Brownlee will have a shit-fit when he sees these.
MarlboroTestMonkey7

Octopii are not your friends, badkittym, they are our rulers!
PixelFish

Man, that was dangerous. I think I nearly put half the store in my shopping cart.
kib

As others have pointed out, this photo isn’t from that Etsy page. Anyone got a lock on where, exactly, that model is? It’s the best one of the collection.
aquabun

Hmm, am I the only one who finds the number of exclamation marks in the product description excessive?
gruppler

I searched the site just to see how much that ring costs, and I can’t find it. Am I just looking in the wrong place, or are they already out of stock? If so, how many were there to begin with?
Agent 86

Suctioned, for Her Pleasure!

Tak, sure it was natural causes. Naturally, they tend to die when you take them out of their habitat.
Amphigorey

For those of you who are wondering what the plural of octopus is, it’s “octopodes.” Greek root, you see. “Octopuses” is also acceptable.
BadKittyM

#55
Well, um…okay. *clutches Cthulhu plushie*
eustace

The only time I’ve ever tried to make a latex mold it took many thin layers, each of which needed time to dry. NOT fast.
Takuan

silicone better?
jules44

I am a goldsmith/silversmith and know the artist. I’ve seen her octopus pieces in different stages of progress and she does use the lost wax method to produce these pieces. For the rings I think she used a 2 step mold process, where she cast a tenticle, formed it into a ring in the size she desired and made a new mold for the ring. Her work is getting a lot of attention, so buying a ring now at the beginning of her career would be a good idea.
BadKittyM

I’ll eat squid in a heartbeat, but not octopus. I’m no vegetarian or PETA person – I’m afraid my rules for what may or may not go down the hatch are limited to a simple question of whether or not I could “be friends” with the creature in question. It’s the same reason I refuse to eat grouper, but I’ll gleefully devour $200-worth of sushi (but not octopus sushi). I can’t ethically eat something that shows a personal interest in creatures and things outside itself, and not for purposes of instinctual behavior.
Takuan

very well, have your little primate vanities. Just remember; those certain nights when the moon glitters on a raging sea without wind, that faint blue glow around that “trinket” is not just your imagination. Take no voyages.
Gilbert Wham

I, too, would like a link to that ring if it’s still available. I wants it.
error404

I have to say that I am at a loss as to how you can lost wax method cast a ring to fit a particular finger size from something like an octopus tentacle.

I’m a Silversmith by training and am drawing a blank here.

The earings seem pretty straight forward, you freeze them and attach the wax spue to the big end, pop the collar over them, fill with casting plaster, allow to dry, then kiln them to burn out the tentacles and the sprue, and bingo.

no two are alike, so there’s no problem there, buit to make a ring to an exact size?

Freeze it onto plastic tube that is sized to the correct diameter? then cut out the plactic tube, then followw the previous steps?

And how do you get the tentacle to stay on?

peirce a couple of holes and sew the ends on perhaps?

I am pretty intrigued by this.

usual apologies for awful typing
Argon

@Amphigorey: “Octopodes” is correct if you’re talking old Greek, however in English it’s rather rare (though not necessarily incorrect. But then, the proper singular should be “oktopous” instead of “octopus” too.) Similarly, “octopi” is based on a mistaken Latin root (and also has that certain smart-ass ring to it, anyway). [1] – Just stick with the simple common English “octopuses”.

And since we’re already in nit-picking mode… :) – Technically there’s no such thing as “octopus tentacles”. Tentacles define a slightly different thing. While the usage of these terms is equally muddled, octopuses really have “arms”.
misshallelujah

Debate all you want about the edibility of seafood; my brain still hasn’t gotten over the use of the words “tentacle” and “sexy” in the same paragraph.

…nope, still there.
Anonymous

I like that. I knew a jeweler who made a hat clip out of a dead praying mantis he found. :)
kaiza

@32

Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dream_of_the_Fisherman%27s_Wife (NSFW, unless your boss is an art lover). Of course your definition of sexy may differ.
minTphresh

…t’was just the lay-lee worm, and her swain, the mackeral of the Sea…
Kitteh

To all looking for that exact ring:

Etsy’s web cart is weird forcing most make to order sellers to list an item once but sell it multiple times. Therefore if someone bought the ring earlier it would no longer be listed for sale. The shop owner’s front page says she is out of town for a week, so she probably hasn’t had time to re-list the item. I suggest msging her.
sazzamook

$52 for the ring… I wants two for wedding rings :D

Think of the gross factor when people find out what they are lol!
Pandora5031

Bonito anillo de tentÃ¡culo de pulpo… aunque prefieron los pulpos en su tinta.
Jake0748

Argon – cool! Octopus arms. :) Some of my friends call chicken wings “arms” also.
seer

No accounting for taste of course, but those of you disdaining to eat octopus may simply not have had them prepared right.

The fisherman must beat them against a rock for a while as soon as possible after capture, in order to break down the muscle tissues. If this is not done, the meat becomes rubbery when cooked. Because throwing an octopus against a rock begins to resemble hard work after a while, it’s often not done enough. If the octopus is simply to be grilled or dried into jerky, then rubberiness may be OK, but tenderizing is essential for more delicate preparation, such as marinade:

olive oil + vinegar + oregano + rosemary + octopus + lemon juice = almost better than sex.

As far as the jewelry goes, I’d buy the ring in the BB picture if I could find it on the site, but I can’t.
Takuan

I SURE hope this is from a naturally deceased octopus – and that ONE tentacle was used for a master mold.
Tenn

/sheepishly hides covetous expression + drool from the Costello
melissa

wow. i REALLY want one. hahah.
stratosfyr

Probably caught for food, Takuan.

I’ve never had octopus myself, but I really like squid.
Tenn

STRATOSFYR!
Evasive maneuvers, now! The Holy Cephalopod resents this slaughter of his cousins!
Lobster

Octopi live very short lives. It’s not difficult to get a hold of a good tentacle.
Avram

And a lobster should know about getting octopus tentacles.
error404

Gah!!

EUSTACE sorry Im meant to say Silicon, I was as you can see from the typing thinking ahead of where i was typing.

Yes of course a siliocon cast.

My apologies.
Takuan

speak for yourself…lousy crustacean
largeheartedboy

My wife would love one of these, wow.
Agent 86

@33

Ah, but have you seen the video-reenactment?

@30
They probably started with different sized Octopuses to make the molds, or just a large one and took samples from different sections of the arm/tentacle.
higgledypiggledy

Ah, the PETA in me says no, but the fashionista says yes!

It’s cute in a strange way, isn’t it?
Antinous

I watched an octopus assassinate and consume a large Dungeness crab. A lobster would lose that battle.
eustace

This would go nicely with my seersucker suit.
pauldrye

So these are basically Masonic lodge rings for Cthulhu worshippers. Cool!

I definitely need one before my next CoC game.
ibalifrost

Knowing the octopus’s (pi?) aren’t killed for jewelry for humans might make me want to check it out. They are very smart creatures.
boyvbar

Ha ha! Dude, they can regenerate lost limbs! I would like a set that resembles Mr-T-era bling, please.
Registrado

Crazy Abdul says, “Ia! Ia! This is the best ring I have in my vast, non-Euclidean warehouse. Buy it now and be assured that you’ll be eaten first when the stars are right!”

That’s Crazy Abdul – his prices (and everything else) are insane!
MarlboroTestMonkey7

In order to tender the octopus, quickly dip in boiling/salted water up to three times at 4 minutes intervals, prepare with herbs, lemon and grill.
There’s one recipe with wine which has a sweet-sour flavor, yum! But don’t know it.
Jake0748

I’m probably in a small minority here. I don’t like squids, octopuses, and other creatures with tentacles. I can’t relate to them as friends, and I don’t like to eat them. So what would I do with a piece of jewelry that symbolized one of them? Just one opinion.

BTW – icky.
Antinous

Not even the octopus who plays with Mister Potato Head? Octopi are very smart and friendly. I think that they’re adorable. Squid, not so much.
eustace

I’m waiting for the Noodly Appendage ring – a tangle of pasta.
Takuan

http://www.kzamm.com/media/pictures/angry_squid.jpg
Jake0748

@17 & !8 – Nope, no sale. I’ll say this though, I’d rather make friends with them than eat them.
Antinous

Squid can be cooked tender, but every time that I’ve had octopus, it’s been like trying to chew the sole of a shoe.
Jake0748

Everyone already eats cows, pigs, sheeps, birds, some of us even dogs and cats. I don’t understand the need to eat goofy, creepy sea creatures too. I’m not a vegan, but every time I get in to a discussion like this, I get closer.