Whyfore

Design Inspiration for the Inventive Mind..

By

Watermelon Carving – Jack (Frost) o’ Lantern

 

So I went to the store in search of Halloween supplies, and what do I find? Aisles and aisles of Christmas stuff. This year I just decided to roll with it. I put up the Christmas lights, and we dressed up as Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the Grinch, and handed out candy canes to the trick or treaters, blaring Christmas music.

Of course, no Halloween would be complete without carving a Jack o’ Lantern.  I skipped the pumpkins and hit the melon aisle, choosing out a watermelon, a honeydew, and a mini watermelon. After removing the skin they were a nice snowy white, with Christmasy red and green interiors. I stacked ’em up and carved a wicked snowman, complete with carrot nose and twigs for arms, and then packed him with Christmas lights. The results were pretty awesome for how easy it was. Of course now the neighborhood thinks we’re crazy, but I can live with that.

Christmas Halloween watermelon carving

For the Christmas lights, I used a string of these fairy lights I found dirt cheap on amazon.  I’m super impressed with them. They are LED, so they are cool and low energy, the string is really flexible, the lights are really tiny and bright, and it has a controller with several different blink/steady burn options. These melons can’t handle the heat of a candle. This isn’t the first time I’ve tried this. I’m pretty proud of my previous watermelon skull and brain carving.

See all my previous watermelon carvings here.

By

Carved Zucchini

zucchini carving halloween vegetable carving

 

I carved a zucchini for Halloween this year (click image to see full size). Going unconventional with my Jack o’ Lantern is typical for me, though I would usually carve a watermelon, but I couldn’t come up with anything that would top last years watermelon skull with brain, so I figured it was time on to move on to greener fruits…errr vegetables? Whatever they are. The zucchini alligator carving took a bit over an hour (it is all one piece, so carving away the area around the teeth took time). It’s almost two feet long.

I recommend the zucchini as a carving substrate. They don’t stink, they aren’t sticky or messy, and they have a ton of firm flesh and only a small center of seeds. They won’t handle a candle though, so use a LED or ultrasonic fog maker.

By

Carved Watermelon – Skull and Brain

Happy Halloween everyone!

This is my Jack o’ Lantern for the year, my usual carved watermelon.  For anyone who isn’t tied down by tradition, I highly recommend them over pumpkins, it went really smooth and only took about twenty minutes using a birds-beak style paring knife.

This is the first time I’ve tried removing the skin and going for dimension. The skull is all one piece except for a few teeth in the back of the mouth, and the brain is still attached. I’ve hidden an ultrasonic mist maker and LED in the brain cavity so illuminated fog spills out over the brains.

Update, Chicken Zombies in search of brains:

Chicken Zombies

Just when you thought Halloween was safely over, the zombie chickens show up to eat any melon brains that may have been left laying around.

A couple of my past watermelon carvings here.

By

Ultrasonic Fog Maker

Every year when Halloween comes around, I carve a watermelon. I don’t have anything against the carving of pumpkins, I just find the watermelon to be a superior choice.

They are easier to carve.

They are more directly edible.

The green on the skin contrasts nicely with the red interior.

The interior looks awesome when lit.

The biggest flaw I’ve found with the watermelon is that it doesn’t take the heat of a candle very well. This year I tried this little ultrasonic fog maker with LED. Even with a windy Halloween, the results were impressive. The interior had a shifting glow in the swirling fog.

When submerged, the device uses ultrasound to resonate the surface of the water and break it into extremely tiny droplets. The fog feels cool to the touch, but not very damp. In my tests, the effect worked through thin solid materials, so you could hide it in a device. It also worked with some success on other liquids (including Vodka). You may have seen these in use in small fountains, or for reptiles, terrariums, or humidifiers.

Update: Here is my watermelon carving for 2009:

Watermelon Jack o lantern 09

For 2009 I had a small melon. I did’t have much room inside for a water reservoir, so I just put the fog maker in a jar of water. I could hear all of the trick or treaters coming because of all of the exclamations ver the smoke coming from the teeth of my watermelon. The empty eye socket was carved to a thin shell so it lit up nicely without being open to the interior.