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Hi All,

thought I would share a project my son and I did for Halloween this year. Kind of falls into place here at TZG.com.

This was our first attempt at making shrunken heads from apples. We really like how they came out so much so I kind of want to do more.

Click for larger images


W.J.

I forgot all about that! I remember making them in grade school. Thanks

Thats really kewl. They look awesome !

That is awesome! Thank you for sharing pics! Hats off to you and your son! That is really cool.

+1 rep for the shrunken heads. How about posting some instructions? I'd love to answer my door with one and scare the crap out of someone!

I never even saw this and they make that in grade school in the US? Awesome!

A quick google gave me this
http://halloweenalliance.com/howto/craft...apples.htm

Or did you do it differently?

Thank you all. Being one who is creatively challenged, I really do appreciate the recognition.

As samuraitrev asked, here are some instructions:

Grab some apples, I used these:

• red delicious - Perfect for carving and naturally have a head-like shape
• golden delicious - a little soft for carving so be gentle, but you get better detail. The chestburster-looking one (4th picture, middle) was golden delicious
• macoun - Good carving, but sometimes chunked when carving because of more solid flesh than the others.

Make some lemon & Salt water in a bucket (scale accordingly):

• 1/2 cup lemon juice (about 8-9 lemons)
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 Gallon Water
  

Carve the apples into faces:

• Peel the apples, but leave a bit of skin around the tops and bottoms
• place apples in lemon salt water mixture for 15 minutes. While carving we left the remaining peeled apples in the mixture.
• For eyes I used the back end of a sharpie marker to create holes about 1/2 - 3/4 inch deep
• I used really cheap woodworking tools I found at BigLots to carve the facial features (widen the eye sockets, indent noses and carve out the mouths)
  
• Originally I tried to make them as hollow as can be to ensure they would dry in time, however I found it was not necessarily needed. (last picture- left hollowed, right not hollowed)
• Once completed with carving, place the carved apple back into the lemon&salt water mixture.
• let carved apples sit in mixture for another hour, this will prevent browning when drying

Drying:
The waiting is the hardest part - Tom Petty

You can do this many ways however this is how I did it because it was really rainy in New England the past few weeks.

• Please the apples on a screen like material, something where the surface contact with the apple is minimal, you want as much air as possible in contact with the apple.
• Place the apples in the oven for 2 weeks
• Do not forget you put them in there, especially when preheating the oven for dinner, I just grilled everything
• Every other day or so put the oven on at 170 degrees for about 3 - 4 hours at a time.
• After about 16 days my apples were fully dry. Make sure they are spongy but not moist.

Decorate: Now the Fun begins!

• Coat the apples well with a sealer/laquer. I used krylon matte finish fixant. To coat them completely I hung each one form a tree branch in the yard and grossly oversprayed to ensure a full thick coat.
• We painted the eye sockets black and also dry brushed the mouths to give them more contrast.
• We used a glue gun to glue black-eyed peas into the eye sockets, and rice/popping corn as teeth. For the hair we used thin hemp twine and black paper string (both found at the local craft store in the jewelry making section) because we wanted stiffer hair than doll hair.
• We then glued bamboo skewers to the backs to hold them up.
• Optional- the chestburster and the one in the first photo are both painted with glow-in-the-dark acrylic paint on the eyes and teeth. It actually came out really well.
  
  

And that was pretty much it. I would say it took a total of about 10 hours of actual working time to make them. But it was well worth it.

Thank you,
W.J.

Thread stickied for now.

This sounds like ancient dark magic. I like it.