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Awesome folk
Upcoming events of note
I'm hoping it's a long nap....
Stuff for me (else I lose track of 'em)
The responsible individual
- Máire
- Currently meditating on: "Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
8 comments:
I like jack o' lanterns, but the investment of time and money needed to produce just one is nothing I'm interested in at the moment.
Thanks to Haddayr, though, I've had the notion for years now to try to carve turnips, which was the original festive vegetal light receptacle. No punkins in Ireland, folks! Anyway, I'd heard it could be hellishly difficult to do, so I don't know if I happened to get a wimpy variety of turnip, which was all the store had to offer, or if a melon-baller is just the ideal solution, but there you go.
I scraped off as much wax as I could, because it was already flaking off and I couldn't think of a way to make that work for me in the final design.
Eventually I settled on drawing guidelines on the turnip before hollowing it out, so I could press harder without worrying about busting through the intended face.
This project got left 'til so late in the season, there was exactly one package of battery-run tea lights left at Walgreens, and it was the color-changing variety, hence the disco effect in shots #3, #4 and #5.
The advice I used most came from the site at http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/10/how-to_carve_a_turnip-o-lanter.html , if you'd like further practical insights.
Wow. They are very festive and weir! I like them.
Those are teh awsome!!!1 I wonder if those turnips we got from our CSA are still in decent shape....
Very nicely done! I love the one with the hairy nose coming out... and the colored lights are spooctacular.
I like to imagine that maybe his nose has had a spell cast on it to make it look like that, and that's why he looks so surprised! That was the first one I did and I don't think I carved as much out of the inside as I did with the others, so it doesn't seem to glow from within...and I'm thinking maybe I should resist the temptation to try to do more scraping.
Fan-bloody-tabulous!
I have friends who do the neatest stuff...
What fun! I especially like the one in shot #3. But they are all quite marvy!
(I can't remember my password.)
--Julie
FOLLOW-UP, mostly for my own sake:
I was able to get the carved turnips to last over a week in good condition by putting them in the fridge in a bowl of water overnight. If I'd approached it more scientifically, I'd have varied what I did with each, but I didn't think about it until too late. It's possible that just "in water" is fine, or just "in a cool place" is fine. Maybe next year I'll experiment more.
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