My dream ……. To create an octopus sculpture from shells while making the art form look playful and non-threatening!

After two years conceptualizing and developing a plan for how to structure such a creature, I couldn’t contain my excitement for beginning this interesting task.

During the winter of 2015, I collected shells every chance I had, mostly on Gasparilla Island and Manasota Key. I then sterilized them, dried them in the Florida sunshine and sorted them into sizes, shapes, colors and categories.

I then gathered information on octopuses on the Internet, including photos and other interesting facts.

Now I was ready to begin and have the sculpture take shape.  The first place I began was with the head.  Octopuses have very large heads.  The underlying frame for the head, torso and eight appendages is a combination of artificial flower oasis, wire, and epoxy clay.   Once that was almost completed, the head was attached to the body.  I had found a very interesting piece of driftwood which worked beautifully as a structure to build the sculpture around.  At this point, I began to call the creature “Oscar”.  It seemed fitting and the name has stuck.

The very large dark grey shells which I used at the base of each of the eight appendages were found a few years ago. They are from saltwater clams and are called pen shells.  At the time, I wasn’t sure what I would use them for, but they seemed to work perfectly for Oscar.  The eyes are oyster shells. From there I began the appendages.  You will notice one penetrates the driftwood in two places and another wraps around the driftwood.  The others appendages are free standing and curled in various ways.

Some facts about this sculpture:

• Over 10,000 shells were used
• He weighs 82 pounds
• He is two feet high and 40” in on each side
• His legs/appendages are approximately four and a half feet long
• He was two years in the planning
• Hours of shell collecting, cleaning, sorting, categorizing
• Over 400 hours of effort

Thank you to my husband, Graham, for building Oscar a 360 degree rotating stand to rest upon.

I hope you enjoy viewing Oscar as much as I enjoyed creating him.  If you have any questions or would like to learn more facts about octopuses, please do not hesitate to ask me or Oscar.

Diane Segger

Click on link below to see a short Youtube video of him.