Finishing the Octopus Tentacle

Last weekend I finally got back to the tentacle and on Thursday (Christmas Day) I was able to finish over half the remaining suckers and the planishing and some of the texturing. That left only 6 more suckers to do on Friday. 

I finished up the suckers around 2pm and then removed the cuff from the pitched and cleaned it up. I then did a bit of trimming of the metal around the cuff and at 4pm the shop elf and I went to the vise with the bracelet mandrel to start the forming (which is bending).  The shop elf would hold the metal against the mandrel and I would use a nylon tool i made, to hammer the cuff down and on to the curve of the mandrel. 

TWO hours later and several annealing, the cuff was formed.  

I still had some (cuff) forming to do and some more trimming of excess metal but I decided to leave that until today. Yesterday I took a break and went wine tasting with my metal friend Lisa Kim - we both needed a day of fun. 

Today I have completed forming the cuff, the final trim of the metal, pre and final polish. 

Currently the cuff is in the ultrasonic cleaner.  I am off to take the pretty pictures and they will be in the gallery soon

Enjoy the process pictures below, as usual