Octopus Announcement
Make 100 Kickstarter Project...Octopus Color Wheel Launching today!
Welcome to the new year! I love the beginning of January: the subtle shifts in light, the clarity, and the freshness.
Every January Kickstarter features their Make 100 challenge. I’m excited to join this year with my Octopus Color Wheel Kickstarter.
I’ve been crocheting octopuses for about a year now. I’ve delighted in the process of collecting colorful yarns and threads and turning them into soft and textured octopuses. At some point along the way, I decided it would be fun to make a color wheel of octopuses. I’ve spent a lot of time exploring color wheels, and I’ve learned you can make a color wheel out of pretty much anything. Octopuses are uniquely suited to this because of their amazing ability to change color and texture in order to camouflage themselves.
By the end of the project, I will make 100 octopuses.
As my collection of yarn grows and octopuses continue to overtake my studio, I’ve learned that nobody needs 100 octopuses. That’s where today’s invitation comes in. You are invited to support the project, learn more about octopuses, and possibly adopt one of your own. Rewards include prints, stickers, and octopuses, both large and small. The top of this email is the larger chenille octopus and the one below is the smaller one, made from embroidery thread.
Reflection
This project has been inspired by curiosity, learning and discovery. There is the curiosity to see how a new color of yarn or thread will transform into an octopus as well as the chance to learn more about the anatomy and ability of these fascinating creatures. Along the way, I've been improving my skills with sculptural crochet and am enamored with the way an octopus can be created from a single long piece of thread or yarn.
My interest in octopuses was initially inspired by My Octopus Teacher, the story of the relationship between a diver and an octopus. I am currently working on a book about deepening relationship with creativity and this seemed like a great model for the way relationships form slowly through encounter, exploration, and mutual curiosity.
As I read and learn more about octopuses, they seem to possess creative attributes too. They love disguise, they are escape artists, they can flow through small spaces with their gelatinous bodies, and, in aquariums, they will play with some of the same constructive toys humans enjoy.
What stories do you have of letting yourself be led by curiosity and discovery?
How has observing an animal, plant, or pet inspired your own creativity or play?
Inspiration
Octopuses inspire me to learn about the people who study them. As with my Mother Trees Series, I have been learning about women in the natural sciences, especially women studying and writing about marine life and octopuses.
I have written about Sy Montgomery here before. She wrote Soul of an Octopus; it tells her story of studying and getting to know octopuses. I also recently discovered Octopus Scientist, written by Montgomery and illustrated with photographs by Keith Ellenbogen. For children, she wrote Inky’s Amazing Escape, a picture book illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford and based on the real-life story of an octopus who escaped a New Zealand aquarium.
Danna Staaf has been passionate about octopuses since she was a child and had one as a pet. Now a marine biologist, author and artist, she has written two books about octopuses. I’ve just begun reading Monarchs of the Sea: The Extraordinary 500-Million-Year History of Cephalopods. She describes the history of this fascinating species and notes that their evolution goes back to the time of the dinosaurs. Staaf also has a new book about Jeanne Villepreux-Power titled The Lady and the Octopus.
Jeanne Villepreux-Power was a 19th century seamstress and self-taught amateur naturalist. She developed some of the first aquariums to support her studies of the argonaut octopus. She was the first to observe how the females create and maintain their shell-like egg cases. You can read an introduction to Jeanne Villepreux-Power and her work in this article from the Marginalian: The Seamstress Who Solved the Ancient Mystery of the Argonaut, Pioneered the Aquarium, and Laid the Groundwork for the Study of Octopus Intelligence. She is also featured in this Science Friday article: The Seamstress and the Secrets of the Argonaut Shell.
If you are interested in learning more about octopuses, I’m putting together “100 Fun Facts about Octopuses,” an email and PDF that includes fun and silly facts about octopuses as well as links for further reading - it’s included for all supporters on kickstarter. Learn more at the link below.
Thank you for reading and being part of creative community through this newsletter.
With a grateful heart,
Kathryn