This little blue and white octopus can be made in under 1 hour. You will need roughly 14 white and 14 blue pipe cleaners (chenille stems) and a wire cutter is recommended, but optional.
- Start with the tentacles by taking one of each of your colors and bending them in half.
Fold 1 white and 1 blue pipe cleaner in half - Combine these two pipe cleaners together by nestling the white pipe into the blue. They should be perpendicular to each other and nestled tightly.
Combine the white and blue pipe cleaner by inserting the white inside the blue
The white pipe should be nestled tightly inside the blue - With one hand, grip the pointy end roughly 1 inch from the end. With the other hand at then curved end, twist until you get a nice spiral pattern. The spirals should go all the way down to the end of the curvy end, but a little space should remain on the pointy end where it has not been twisted.
One completed tentacle
One completed tentacle - Repeat this process 7 more times to get a total of 8 tentacles.
Eight tentacles - Group the 8 tentacles together, making sure all the pointy sides are on one end. Where the tentacles remain untwisted, tie the group of tentacles together by tightly wrapping one pipe cleaner around them and securing it in place (to secure it you can use one of the pointy ends of the tentacles). We are going to cover this up later, so it doesn’t matter if you use a white or blue pipe cleaner for this step.
Secure the tentacles together by wrapping one pipe tightly around them
Use one pointy end from the tentacles to secure the pipe holding them together
Securely attached and bundled tentacles - To form the body, wrap one blue pipe cleaner around the tentacles and make a loop where the body will be located. Secure the other end by looping once more around the tentacles and securing the end.
Attach one pipe to start making the body
Attach a pipe cleaner to make the general body shape - Give the body a little upside down bell shape and add another pipe cleaner perpendicular by wrapping one more blue pipe around the tentacles. Keeping the new pipe along the final shape of body, secure it to the top of the first pipe. Again, keeping with the shape of the body, secure the remaining end onto the base of the body.
Attach a second pipe to the tentacles
Add a second pipe to create the body/head frame
Completed body shape rear view Completed body shape rear view
completed body shape side view
completed body shape
Completed shape of the body/head of the octopus - Starting at the base of the body just above the blue pipe cleaners that we just added, start wrapping a white pipe cleaner around the body, keeping with the contours of the body, securing to each of the blue pipes as you go around. Alternate 1 blue, 1 white, etc. until you reach the top of the body.
secure each pipe around the frame for the body.
Secure each pipe around the frame for the body
Continue alternating colors to fill in the body - If the overall shape isn’t exactly what you expected there is some wiggle room to make minor adjustments by pushing or squishing the body into the correct shape (but don’t go too crazy).
Front view of completed body/head
Side view of the completed body/head - Bend the tentacles in semi-random directions to make it look more lifelike and natural.
pipe cleaner octopus completed, front view
Pipe cleaner octopus tentacles
Pipe cleaner octopus tentacles
That’s it! If you want to add some googly eyes, go right ahead, or just enjoy as it is. Here’s a gallery of the final product.
pipe cleaner octopus completed, front view
Pipe cleaner octopus
Completed pipe cleaner octopus side view
Completed pipe cleaner octopus
Pipe cleaner octopus finished
Completed pipe cleaner octopus
Completed pipe cleaner octopus
For a harder project, try making one of the following:
Pipe Cleaner Eagle – A Step By Step guide with pictures (40 hour intermediate project)
Pipe Cleaner Giraffe (30 hour advanced project)
For a similar difficulty project, check out the following:
Easy pipe cleaner frog (great project for kids)
Pipe Cleaner Animals 