The idea for this piece came from Terry Noakes (Bedfordshire BWA) who said he was thinking about carving a jellyfish as he had never before seen it done. I immediately stole his idea and started work!

The four main tentacles were the only parts that required real carving, but there were three other innovations that might be of interest.

Main tentacles

These were carved individually in lime. Each was a twisted V section with wavy edges. Much of the work was done with rasps and abrasives and, apart from getting into awkward areas, posed no real problems.

The body

This was made from segments of ash and walnut. Once assembled it needed to be turned. Lacking a proper lathe, or the energy to use my foot powered pole lathe, I used my pillar drill to improvise a powered lathe. Using rasps scrapers and abrasives a reasonable result was soon achieved. The scalloped edges were done with riffler files and abrasives.

Outer tentacles

These were always going to be a problem as they were so delicate. Luckily the yew trees in the local churchyard were being trimmed and it was a simple matter to strip off the bark to get an instant tentacle with the organic look I was after. Even better, they were flexible enough to withstand any rough handling they might receive.

The stand

The carving was connected to a simple acrylic base via a 3mm carbon fibre rod. This was flexible enough for the jellyfish wobble in the slightest draught or ocean current.