The first panel I went to at Comicpalooza, last month, was Friday at 10 AM, it was a make-n-take. The beautiful and lively anime voice-actress Claire Hamilton helped me and the other attendees create a tentacle necklace. I had so much fun in that make-n-take. I mean who doesn’t love tentacles?
Making Tentacles at Comicpalooza
We were all provided with polymer clay in a vivid selection of colors. The clay comes in four sectioned off areas. We each took one of those small sections in the color of our choice for the tentacle and a half section in another color for the suckers. We pulled off enough off the bigger section to roll and shape it into our tentacle. Twisting it around until we had it the way we wanted it. Then we took the half portion of a small section of clay and used the edge of our comicpalooza badges to slice it into small pieces. We rolled those into tiny balls for the suckers. We were each given a toothpick and used it to make the indentions in our suckers. We stuck the suckers onto the tentacle. We also used the toothpick to punch a hole in the clay so we could string it onto a cord for a necklace. When we were finished we used special hand held dryers like blow dryers but hotter, to firm them enough until we could get them home and bake them. 
Once home we baked them in our kitchen ovens at approximately 110 degrees for about 30 minutes. When you try this in your on oven, please be aware oven temperatures vary so keep an eye on the tentacle to make sure it doesn’t bake over or under the needed time.
Here are some youtube videos on making tentacle necklaces:
Making tentacle necklaces is fun, easy and … very Steampunk. A tentacle necklace make-n-take is also a great panel to do for readers at a convention.
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Maeve Alpin, who also writes as Cornelia Amiri, is the author of 19 books. She creates stories with kilts, corsets, fantasy and happy endings. Her latest Steampunk/Romance is Conquistadors In Outer Space, which is as crazy and as entertaining as it sounds. She lives in Houston Texas with her son, granddaughter, and her cat, Severus.
STEAMED! 
OK, I”m going to be *that* person….it is recommended that if you bake polymer clay in your food oven, be sure to “tent” them (put them in a foil pouch, completely closed up) because, while polymer clay is considered non-toxic before and after baking, it does release chemicals while baking that *may* adhere to oven surfaces and *might* later get into food you cook in the oven. Some recommend that if you work with polymer clay often enough, you should go ahead and purchase a toaster oven specifically for baking clay.
Thank you so much for that helpful information Angela. I appreciate it so much. Please tent the clay in a foil pouch as Angela has advised and get a toaster oven if you plan to work a lot with polymer clay.