Red button octopus wall plaque

  

This is a wall plaque made out of buttons, beads, and sequins that were sewn onto a stiff Pellon cutout of an octopus. It measures 12 inches wide and 11.5 inches high. I adapted the techniques of Frances Holliday Alford to create this. Many of the buttons in this piece were white before an encounter with red Rit dye in my microwave (you can find this technique on the web). The process was hard on the fingers, but it sure used up a lot of odds & ends in my bling stash. This octopus is an homage to the delightful red octopus who resides at the Monterrey Aquarium in CA, and I made it as a birthday present for a friend who collects all things cephalpod except for the creatures themselves.