Sarah+E.'s+Nautical+Project



Come see My Page! Come see my projects page!

**__ Materials and Supplies I Used __**
 * 1.** About 1/8 cups of dark brown sand from my grandma
 * 2.** About 1/3 cups of light brown sand from my grandma
 * 3.** About 2/3 cups of coco brown sand from my mom’s craft closet
 * 4.** About 1/8 cups of black sand from my grandma
 * 5.** A 3 oz. multi-shaded brown rock that is broken in half and I found in our rock garden
 * 6.** A 3 oz. white, brown and yellow rock with a dip in it that I found in our rock garden
 * 7.** A 2 oz. rock that is white, gray and brown with layers on it that I found in our rock garden
 * 8.** A 2 oz. reddish and brownish lumpy rock found in the rock bed at my home
 * 9.** A 2 oz. dimpled, reddish-brown rock found in the rock garden at my home
 * 10.** 6 oz. of white, nontoxic, air-dry molding clay from Crayola that requires no baking
 * 11.** 23 small twigs off of a bush outside our home that are about 1-3 in. long
 * 12.** A regular fish bowl with clear glass sides and a flat bottom with curved sides and a rim.
 * 13.** Light brown twine that has been braided to make longer ropes
 * 14.** 4 small weights to pull down the net from my brother’s tackle box
 * 15.** 4 ultra small weights to add more weight to the net from my brother’s tackle box
 * 16.** A small amount of Styrofoam to help the raft of twigs float
 * 17.** A small length of fishing line for the guy’s twig fishing pole
 * 18.** A tuft of hair from a doll that my mom has
 * 19.** Tan, pink, gray, brown, black, white, red, and blue paint
 * 20.** A red, gold, silver, brown, blue, black, pink, and gray seven inch paint brush
 * 21.** A black, red, gold, silver, brown, blue, and pink 7 ½ inch paint brush
 * 22.** A black and gray hot glue gun with a long, black cord
 * 23.** One stick of cloudy, solid glue soon to be melted
 * 24.** My very own large hands
 * 25.** A gray, stained metal tray
 * 26.** Shiny, slightly wrinkled, silver tinfoil
 * 27.** The heat from our freshly warmed, black, gray, electrical oven that is not on
 * 28.** A little bit of super glue that stuck to my hand
 * 29.** A small, blue, digital camera to take pictures with and my mom to hold it
 * 30.** A silver bowl that I made in second or third grade to see if the clay would hold up under water when painted
 * 31.** My mind to figure out what I wanted it to look like
 * 32.** Long sharp, orange handled scissors
 * 33.** Black and yellow hand held clippers with a curved end
 * 34.** Some Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane Clear Satin
 * 35.** A rusty chisel **36.** A rusty hammer **37.** A white rock around the size of a soft ball **38.** 1/16th cup of dark green sand **39.** 9/16th cup of light green sand **40.** a little less than 1/4th cup of dark orange sand **41.** 1/3rd cup of light orange sand **42.** 1/8th cup of red sand **43.** 1/3rd cup of dark pink sand **44.** a few inches of fishing line

__ How Did I Do It? __ If you don’t already have some, go to the store, Hobby Lobby is good, to get some white modeling clay Next, find a fish bowl or a clear plastic container to hold the diorama You will also need sand, rocks, and some shells if you want them Depending on what color you want the fish and other things to be, you will need paint Sticks to make the raft are accentual unless you decide on another thing to make the raft out of And to finish off the major supplies, you will also need to get hot glue and twine Take out a chunk of the white modeling clay With this white clay, model as many blob fish that you want, preferably more than one You can also mold a man and a tackle box to signal the deep sea fishing going on You can add hair to the man by cutting off a little hair from a doll and pressing it into the head or any way you see fit To make the raft you will need the sticks that you got earlier Cut them all about the same length and glue them together, two layers is good Once done with that, get two more sticks and glue them the opposite way on the bottom for balance Then get the twine and cut it long enough to wrap around the raft and tie it Cut off the excess twine and glue it into place To make the cave (optional) get a rock big enough to chisel into a cave without breaking it Next, let your clay creations dry for a few days before you paint them In the meantime, to make the raft you will need a medium fishing weight or as many weights until it sinks This is where the twine comes in the most To create the net, you will need at least 10-20 equally sized pieces of twine Lay these out in a grid pattern and glue them down when you think they are about the right amount of space apart After the net has dried and the weights have been glued to the corner, get four long pieces of twine, long enough to reach up to the rim of the container without being lifted off the bottom of it Now that the clay has dried, get out your paint and paintbrushes Paint the entire blob fish one color and let it dry While the blob fish are drying, get the man Paint a shirt, pants, and a pair of shoes on him Then, paint his skin and after the skin dries, paint on a face The final thing to paint, besides the eyes of the blob fish, is the tackle box if you made one The top half is normally a different color than the bottom half One all the paint dries; get some clear satin Helmsman so the creations won’t dissolve underwater Spray on multiple coats of the clear satin and be sure to cover the entire creation Mix all the sand that you have to make some multicolored sand Fill the bottom of the bowl with the sand Put the rocks, shells, and cave in the bottom of the bowl Fill up the bowl with water and place the blob fish in the bottom Do not keep the clay, even when it has been sprayed, underwater long, it will dissolve in a little while

__The life of a Blob Fish__ You are sinking to the bottom of the cold, dark ocean, right off the coast of Australia and Tasmania. The light of the top starts to fade, but you can still breathe. Suddenly, you drift to a stop in what looks like blank, motionless terrain at the bottom of the ocean, literally inches off the sea floor. But you are not alone. There are still animals lurking here, Animals that you might not have known to exist. Here comes one now. A fish floats out from behind a coral encrusted rock - an ugly fish. Blob drifting, inches off the sea floor, it comes forward, out of the watery shadows, slowly. This is the rare and endangered blob fish that lives off the coast of Australia and Tasmania, 800 meters below sea level. Like a jellyfish, the blob fish doesn’t have any bones, but unlike one is not poisonous, so it is perfectly safe-unless you cross its path with your finger. This weird fish eats anything that comes into range and can fit into its mouth. One of the many reasons this animal has no bones – it’s lazy! One of the wackiest creatures that can survive so far down, the blob fish has no gas bladder or any floatation device. To be able to stay under sea level so far, the only thing that barely helps to keep the blob fish not drag the rocky bottom is that it is slightly less dense than the water it lives in. Other animals that live down there with it on the sea floor could be the reason it is going extinct. Lobsters, crabs, and other crustaceans on the floor that are in high demand are being caught and the blob fish is being dragged in with them, forcing them onto the endangered list. Some of the main killers of one of the saddest looking animals on earth are the Australian and new-Zealand fleets. These fleets that fish in the blob fish territory are unknowingly (or knowingly but don’t care) depleting the numbers of a very cool fish. If the blob fish were meant to be near the surface of the water, they would be given a gas bladder or develop one. There would also be less blob fish if they were meant to be higher in elevation because of the predators there. That is why catching blob fish is not right. They are not supposed to be in the higher reaches of the sea. They are built to stay under water in high pressures up to 80 times more than sea level. There are actually some places where the blob fish live that is protected under law, but not to save the blob fish. The main reason is to save the coral reefs that the blob fish lives among. Slowly, you float back up to the surface and back into your world. With this information, you can help to save not only the blob fish, but other fish, even if they are not endangered. If we want the blob fish to stay around for generations to come, we have to help in the fight. This deep sea fish may be the butt of a lot of jokes and the source of laughter but if this continues the way it has, soon this blobby fish will not be around to be made fun of. Each species is one of a kind, but each time we lose one it is a major blow and the food chain is upset, leading to the next extinction.

**__ Where Did I Get That Information? __** http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobfish http://www.itsnature.org/sea/fish/blob-fish/ http://www.google.com/weeklyworldnews.com http://www.google.com/www.wild-facts.com Sierra Magazine Wend Magazine