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Life-size Skeleton Pumpkin Carving!

Life-size Skeleton Pumpkin Carving!
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Start with a skull!
If you're a reasonable person, you'll stop there.
If not, why not make a whole skeleton out of pumpkins?
 
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Step 1Pumpkin Shopping

Pumpkin Shopping
Finding the right pumpkins can be quite a challenge. You'll have better luck with a rural grower with a variety of shapes and sizes... the soulless clones that make it to your supermarket are just too perfect.

You'll need five separate pumpkins:
1. The skull: Shaped like a pear, and as big as your head
2. Torso / ribcage: Tall, barrel-shaped, or large pear, and torso-sized
3. Pelvis: spherical (a soulless clone will work for this one).
4. Limbs: As tall as your femur. The taller gourds tend to have thick skin and are stronger than pumpkins with poorer posture.
5. Feet & Hands: spherical (clone OK). You may be able to use parts from the other pumpkins for these...

It's an odd experience to hunt for pumpkins with this twisted agenda; you're not looking for perfection, you're trying to see the potential for body parts. But the nice thing is, these are usually pumpkins that nobody wants, because normal people don't make skeletons out of them.
Of course, you're looking at some serious total weight by the time you find all of your pumpkins, so be prepared to pay for well over fifty pounds.
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41 comments
1-40 of 41next »
May 13, 2012. 12:12 PMknexboy586 says:
does it rot?
May 18, 2012. 2:49 PMknexboy586 says:
i mean leomon juice!
May 18, 2012. 2:49 PMknexboy586 says:
did you know u can put in a bath filled with lemon and it wont rot !
Sep 24, 2011. 10:21 AMlukev2 says:
how do you make them stand up????
Oct 25, 2009. 3:46 PMbassclarinet23 says:
You're really good at that, to say the least.
Oct 18, 2009. 8:46 AMANTQNUT says:
huh is that second picture made with pumpkin too? really cool stuff! 
Mar 21, 2009. 10:27 PMcaptaincoolness55 says:
lol, i have so many great ideas now that you've shown how to do this! :D
Nov 6, 2008. 10:21 PMpurplekitty says:
It's very cool but why waste so many pumpkins like that..
Oct 10, 2008. 1:05 PMabalone4 says:
wow u have a lot of skill
Oct 10, 2008. 12:58 PMbowmaster says:
OHMYGOSH Thats AWESOME!!!
Oct 9, 2008. 3:30 AMPlasmana says:
That is so AMAZING!!!
Oct 3, 2008. 12:48 PMindeepknit says:
This is a thing of beauty. I'm dumbstruck with awe... sigh :)
Apr 7, 2008. 4:15 PMINSTRUCTUBAL says:
aah! this is frackin awesome
Aug 23, 2007. 4:39 AMKiteman says:
Incredible! Please, can somebody make sure that the Hallowe'en rules allow this to be netered??
Nov 20, 2007. 1:21 PMroyalestel says:
Netered?
Nov 20, 2007. 1:22 PMroyalestel says:
*oh* Right.
Nov 20, 2007. 2:05 PMKiteman says:
There's no function to edit your own posts...
Nov 5, 2007. 3:48 PMstrangelyartistic says:
this is by far, absolutely the coolest instructable i've seen on this entire website yet...that is so cool i def. want to try that sometime halloween or not, maybe not pumpkins will be on sale? :D you rock man
Oct 28, 2007. 10:06 AMphildavi says:
Wow!Real pumpkin sculputor1Thumbs up!
Oct 6, 2007. 2:24 PMWhaleman says:
awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looks so cool!
Oct 5, 2007. 4:33 PMLoosewire; SOE Operative says:
This is REALLY cool, I will definately do this- if we get any pumpkins this year, I think most of them rotted away during the summer floods and there are only a few normally.
Oct 5, 2007. 12:26 AMArtisticBabe says:
He has such personality - this is so awesome! This is such a big project and its really so original and great. :)
Sep 25, 2007. 4:45 PMHuray4Insanity says:
dude all i can say is this is bad@$$ ll(> _ <)ll nice work
Aug 30, 2007. 3:25 PMJohnsons on fire says:
you have skill
Aug 24, 2007. 11:35 AMSax Guy says:
I'm not certain whether this would work or not. I wonder if you could cut a hole in the pumpkin and fill it with water and black food coloring to "dye" it black from the inside out. Ideally, the inside would become black and shade to white toward the orange skin. You would have to do this prior to carving and may need to keep it filled for some time to give it the desired effect.
Aug 23, 2007. 8:31 PMThe Gentle Sherpa says:
That truly does look wonderful, you have a real talent for the pumpkin arts! I wonder though, is there a way to retain the pumpkin skin on any part of this, without it looking odd? As detail, or shading, perhaps?
Aug 22, 2007. 12:03 PMwhatsisface says:
This is brilliant!
Aug 21, 2007. 11:40 PMF-zero says:
damn, thats crazy, but I wouldn't have the patience or pumpkin skills to do so.
Aug 21, 2007. 7:40 PMWario says:
Sweeeeet
Aug 21, 2007. 7:07 PMKevvixx says:
Absolutely Outstanding! How Creative! I am definately doing this for Halloween. Thanks for the inspiration!
Aug 21, 2007. 5:49 PMWeissensteinburg says:
Wow, it's amazing
Aug 21, 2007. 4:29 PMGrey_Wolfe says:
Creativity for the win. Very cool.
Aug 21, 2007. 4:21 PMEasy Button says:
thats awsome
1-40 of 41next »

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Author:mcraghead(HumboldtMusic.com)
Singer / Songwriter, guitarist co-founder of HumboldtMusic.com Day Job: Pixel Pusher @ Humboldt County HHS