From my very beginnings working with stained glass, I experimented with making lamps. Later on when I got my own living space I wanted to start entertaining guests, and do it elegantly, and fancy lighting was high on my list of what that meant to me.

My objective was to make lamps with options of bright enough to read and study by, lighting for an evening dinner party of about six people, and lighting for a romantic date that was still bright enough to not have to fumble around the table and ruin the mood.  Though my early ones had no themes to them other than fun recycling of old glass insulators and found objects, and some even had candles protruding from them, the concept worked well enough to keep going with them.

Later on somehow I remembered that famous Art Nouveau era Viennese bronze  inkwell of the mermaid and octopus that I’d seen back in a slide show in my art history classes at UMass Amherst, and wanted to see if I could do my own rendition as a stained glass chandelier. It was a successful creation, and gave me confidence to experiment with other sea creatures I could do in glass, which can be found on other pages of this site.

These featured octopus chandeliers are a combination of fused and stained glass techniques. One will fit inside a roughly 5′ spherical space, ideally near a stairwell in a big living room as the customer in the photo below has. Notice the earlier design on the first two with the curled ends and candle votive lights.

RED TONED OCTOPUS CHANDELIER

AVAILABLE, $21,000. Free shipping in the continental USA, or free delivery and assembly within 400 miles of Portland Oregon. And a free octopus ornament for the first person to guess why I named him Croco.

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Below is Ollie. His home is now in Foothill Ranch CA. At first I thought to do one in grey and white tones was a strange request, but was very happy with the results. It reminds me of those white candles that you see in windows of old New England homes around Christmas time.

And here is Ellie, the newest of the six so far. Her home is now in Georgia. I was so happy to make one in purple!

And how she was made…

Progress, week 1. parts of head/body just fired in the kiln (with a replacement damselfly wing tagging along.)

 

Week 2. Body, head, eyes partially soldered together.

Week 3. Body and head connected, under piece and belly piece finished.

Week 4. Empty spaces fully filled in with glass and soldered. Black patina is applied and the finished body/head is waxed and buffed. The octopus’ breathing hole (also where the main wire will go) is now a handmade component. In past octopus chandeliers a sawed off beer bottle neck was used.

Week 5. The first sections of the arms are made and test fitted into the octopus’ body.

Week 6. Installing the wiring and lighting and making the hanging apparatus where all the cables converge. This slightly but crucially modified design allows for easier bulb changing, now unobstructed by the pull chain switch, because it’s attached to the under piece instead of the inside of the body.

Weeks 7-10. making all the odd sections of the arms. The sections for them are prepared in sheets. First they are sprinkled with powder frit and I use a pencil eraser to make the skin texture and color blends in the octopus, then fired. It’s not always easy to neatly fill up the kiln shelves with them, but octopus chandeliers require 10 loads of 65 suckers too and I make sure have some unfired ones ready.
The fired sheets are cut into rectangles, ground and copper foiled per regular stained glass technique, and the colors are arranged for easier blending with their even sections that I will fill in later. The dark pieces are for the top and sides of the arms and the light ones the undersides.

Week 11. “Spine wires” are soldered onto the first sections of the arms that were made a few weeks before and bent into shape, making certain that none will block each other and all will at least protrude from the body enough for the hanging wires to clear it.

This is also where the decision of how the finished octopus’ arms will be positioned comes in, that depends on the customer’s aesthetic preference and where they intend to install it. If they have a low ceiling and want it over their dinner table I can make the arms so they extend more outward than curled vertically. Personally, I think the ideal space for one is near a stairwell so that it can be enjoyed from all angles.

Weeks 11 – 20. Now, the long and repetitive process of putting the first four arms together begins. The individual pieces of glass for the odd sections of the arms are soldered together in ring shapes and even ones are filled in between.

Over the course of these two months, one arm, two arms, three arms…

All four arms are complete and suckers added.

The rope lights are snaked through the arms with lamp chain hooked onto the copper loops I made to go around the end caps. Lit so I can check for “solder boogers” stuck to the insides of the arms that I may have to dislodge.

Week 23. Finally, the head and even numbered arms can be placed on top of a large pile of blankets and pillows, arms screwed in, cables hooked and adjusted. The chandelier can be now raised up and out of the way of studio tables until the last four arms are completed and screwed into the empty spaces.

Week 29. The chandelier has been completed and shipped to its destination, unpacked, and raised!