Introduction: Plastic Bottle Jellyfish

About: Independant cg artist and educator. Formerly Co-Founder of a film and animation studio in Bangalore - falanafilms.com Formerly worked on various app and mobile game projects with one3one4.com Mostly a designer…

turn a plastic bottle into a decorative jelly fish.

Step 1: What You'l Need

1. a plastic bottle, 500ml-2litre softdrink/soda bottles will do
2. scissors
3. paints

Step 2: First Cut

we need to cut off one end of the bottle, the neck is the obvious choice, but you can choose to cut off the other end too.. its upto you.

Step 3: 3 Ways to Cuts the Tentacles

there are three kinds of jellyfish you can do now.. all 3 need slightly different cuts, see the pics to see how they look.

1) the jagged tendril jellyfish
2) the subtle curves jellyfish
3) the spiral mess jellyfish(my favourite)

will walk through each type now..

Step 4: The Jagged Tendril Jellyfish

1) cut vertical strips.. the thinner the better.. 
but if you make em too thin, you'l be cutting for a while.. 

2) fold them outwards so they stick out like a fan..

3)make 3-4 diagonal folds along the tentacle(see third diagram)

4)paint if you like.. jellyfish are generally transparent.. so.. might just look better unpainted. its upto you.

5) looks best when suspended... in a window or somewhere like that.

Step 5: The Subtle Curves Jellyfish

1) cut the strips at roughly 30-45degree angle this time.. this lets them have the natural curve of the bottle. 

 2) it has an interesting effect if you hold it upside down(see pic).. so perhaps you can keep this on your desktop or something. doesn't look too great if suspended though. a friend thought it made for an interesting flower vase.. or could have a small plant planted in the center.. hmm..

3) again paint if you like.


Step 6: The Spiral Mess Jellyfish

1) this time each cut is at an angle that will make it go all the way round the bottle.. try and make it go round the bottle atleast twice..

2) while cutting it may look like a big confusing mess.. but once done, just make a little fold so that each tendril is bent outwards.. and they'l be less tangled..

3) looks great suspended..looks kind of like a chime..

4) paint if you like.

thats it!
3 jellyfish!
enjoy!

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