Yellow Octopus

Mask made of bottle plastic with yellow octopus drawn on its face. Blue claws come out the top of its head. Eyes made of bottle spouts. It does not cover the wearer's mouth and nose.

Mask in total darkness. Yellow wires illuminate the octopus face while blue wires illuminate the claws coming out the top of its head.

Primary materials: Plastic from gallon water bottles, braided thread, markers, electroluminescent wires.

I built this right after Kaleidoscope. I wanted to incorporate what I’d learned and make something designed to look good with its lights on. To that end I stuck with the lighter colors available to me, and completely avoided black. I bought longer lights so I would have enough wire to illuminate the crown.

Because I repeated the design of Kaleidoscope, construction on this was quite similar. The apparent leap from something pretty rough to smooth is, to some degree, deceptive. My plastic skills did improve from the first to the second project, but the first time I was also purposefully going for a rougher aesthetic.

Right front of octopus mask. Yellow tentacles are drawn around the side on blue background. Black cord hangs down from back.

Right front of mask in total darkness. Yellow wires illuminate the octopus face and sides of mask, while blue wires illuminate the claws coming out the top of its head.

As with Kaleidoscope, the wire coming out of the mask connects the lights to power packs that can be put in your pocket or on your belt when wearing this.

Left side of mask. Yellow tentacles are drawn around the side on blue background. Black cord hangs down from back.

Left side of mask in total darkness. Yellow wires illuminate the octopus face and sides of mask while blue wires illuminate the claws coming out the top of its head.

Back of mask. Yellow tentacles interlace with each other in complex wiggly pattern over blue background.

Back mask in total darkness. Yellow wires illuminate the back while blue wires illuminate the claws coming out the top of its head. One blue wire crosses yellow wires to bottom of mask.

This is the first mask I’ve worn out in public, to some fields where people were gathered for a Fourth of July fireworks show. It got a pretty good reaction. Some people came up and asked about it, and one woman not only asked about this, but thanked me for wearing it.

The ability to see while wearing it is quite narrow.