The nautilus is a marine mollusc that is able to dive over 2000ft deep.
I wanted this cigar box to reflect the dark depths to which they go. I was inspired by an aquarium enclosure I saw long ago where they used a deep purple light to illuminate the nautilus inside.
What do you call a group of nautili?
I couldn’t find anything, so I’ll make up my own and I’m calling them a convention of nautili.
I had some fun with this box and used glow-in-the-dark polymer clay to sculpt the deep sea sponges
This is under UV light and after I added some glow-in-the-dark paint to the rocks which are sculpted from paper clay.
To swim, the nautilus draws water into and out of the living chamber with its hyponome, which uses jet propulsion.
Moody Nautili