PORT ANGELES – Jaycee Caswell, 6, along with her 5-year-old sister, Nikki, and a friend, Olivia Preston, 4, went in search of the perfect rocks.
She even climbed as high as she could searching for them.
The rocks will be used to cover the octopus statue which will be returned to City Pier as a mosaic at the end of summer.
“I was more in it for the rock climbing than for the rocks,” Jaycee said.
The sculpted sentinel of the Feiro Marine Life Center was moved last fall from its home of seven years to a spot behind the Odd Fellows building, 314 W. First St.
There, sculptor Maureen Wall is overseeing the process that will transform the topiary octopus into a mosaic.
At this point, the octopus has been stripped down to the bone, or metal bars, actually.
It will be filled with an expanding foam to make it easier to cover with concrete.
“First, I have to cover the area with plastic wrap, then I pour in a liquid expanding foam and it fills up the inside without having to add a whole lot of weight,” Wall said.
“The most important part right now for us, are the stones,” she said.
After being repaired, the octopus will be covered with rocks ranging in size from a nickel to a half dollar.
The children collected rocks in the colors red, white, green and yellow.
When they dropped off the rocks Friday, it was the first time Jaycee had seen the octopus since it had been stripped down.
“It looks a lot more different than I expected it to,” she said.
She hopes to be an artist someday, so she wants to come help out some more, she said.
The rocks are the first set of many, Wall hopes.
Wall has set up buckets of water for anyone in the community to bring rocks to donate.
She asks that donors separate the stones by size into the small, medium and large categories.
“We also don’t really want gravel,” she said indicating a rock with sharp edges.
“We are really looking for rounded rocks.”
The artist along with her helpers will need plenty of rocks to cover the octopus before its return to City Pier.