A Guide to Making a Display Octopus for Your Jewelry.

This is Octavia, she is one of my jewelry displays for our Farmer's Market. She looks good just hanging out at home, or working at the market! 

Materials I used:
Paper towel tube, aluminum foil, masking tape, plaster cast, old dictionary pages, flour, glue, water, hemp paper, gesso, paint, acrylic gel medium, matte decoupage, double sided tape cutouts, imitation gold leaf, felt flowers, rhinestone brads, leopard print duct tape, an old bottle, a block of acrylic, and clear epoxy.

The body:
I loosely molded aluminum foil around a paper towel tube in the shape of an octopus. I used masking tape to adhere the tentacles to the body. I used the paper towel tube as a handle while I worked on her, plus I could set her on a bottle to dry. I applied the plaster cast and the paper mache to the outside of the tube too. I wanted her sturdy, so I covered her with two layers of plaster cast,  then two layers of paper mache, I used fibrous papers for strength. I then gave her a thick layer of gesso.
I wanted to give her underside texture, so I mixed a matte gel medium with red re-inker fluid, and applied old dictionary pages torn into strips. For the top side I just painted her a nice lettuce green, and then I coated the whole thing with three layers of matte decoupage.
Her eyes are double sided tape covered with gold leaf and topped with felt flowers and rhinestone brads.

The base:
For the base I found an interesting bottle and a piece of acrylic, things I happened to have around the house. An old lamp base and an old small cutting board or book could work too. Let your imagination run wild!!
I traced the bottle on the acrylic block and then lightly sanded the whole outline and the bottom of the bottle. And then I used two-part epoxy to put them together. Let cure.

Putting it all together:
I trimmed Octavia's tube and covered it with duct tape, I put a layer or two of duct tape on the inside of the tube. I then put two or three layers of tape on the top of the bottle, for snugness. I also left the bottle open on the top, in case I wanted to put something in it later (like lights).