The Forgotten Pumpkin

This weekend was my first weekend I had to spend in the basement. Hubby loves seeing me at this point since I stay out of the way upstairs and just keep coming back up dirtier, grubbier, more painted and just plain happy.
When I stepped down from my previous responsibilities with a charity organization, I made a commitment to myself that I would spend more time on my OWN work for a while. I stepped down the first week of February and got back to work by the end.....close enough.
As I was working on my dragon head project, I found a little devil of a pumpkin hiding behind some supplies. I picked him up and realized that I had totally forgotten about him! He was fully paper mache'd, with the exception of the back third of him not being covered in paper mache clay, paint job and filling in a few holes.
After checking back on my blog, I was shocked that He isn't even mentioned anywhere. I recall working on him and taking pictures, but wasn't going to post until the work was done.
It's his time to shine now! I finished up to about 90% of him last night, just waiting for him to dry to call him done.
Here are some pics of his humble beginnings. I used 2 masking tape empty 'cores' (the masking tape was done and I had these 2 carboard tube/rings left)that became eye socket forms. Tinfoil was used to bulk up the cheek bone areas. The mouth is shaped from leftover 'fuel' boxes (RE: beer case) cut and roughly glued into shape.

The last pic is how he was left as of October 30th, 2010. He wasn't ready to be displayed, so he went to the back of the cave with the intention of finishing him right away.
You can see the back third of the pumpkin doesn't have any clay or texture on it, as well as the mouth is still open and the structure/supports for the mouth is still visible.

Kinda looks like the alien hybrid from Alien...well, at least the beginning part of that sculpt.
A couple shots of the back and on the stairs for scale:

As I'm looking at him in pictures, I'm starting to realize just how strange is looks with no teeth...like Grampa Simpson without his dentures. I'm also a little concerned about the top jaw's angle, or lack thereof. I might go back and add an angled bit and carve in some teeth to the jaw.
Like I said before, he's not done -not even named yet- but he is no longer forgotten. Any comments orideas are more than welcome.

Eternal Pumpkins 2010

Here we go. rough shots of them after 3 layers of paper mache.
Top Shot

....some side shot action....

and last shot...call it a close up.note the textury textureness.

 

The only problem I am having with making these in the new house is that I am workng in the basement, thus, damp. They are taking a longer time to dry than I had anticipated, and I begn to worry about mold and other nasty stuff.

Finalized Pumpkins

So, here's some pics of the stages of the pumpkins. They are currently on display at the Office of the Dartmouth General Foundation.

This is my favourite one...my roomie has deemed it the 'Cancer Pumpkin'.

Here's a texture shot.......mmmmmmtexture.

Top shot of them as they dried.....the greener ones have a more 'undead' look to them.

This was the second to last stage. I had brushed them with a glue/water/orange paint mix. The orange was added so I knew where I had covered. With the surface already being white, the glue was hard to see, so a heavy tint that would help in the shading was added. They were then sprayed white for highlight ideas and then green for the tops, and then a quick airbrush of a yucky black to give a little contour base.

Pumpkin Update

These are the most recent photos of the pumpkins I've been making. Done with the paper mache portion, I've now covered them with paper clay and begun moulding them to their final forms. I'm very impressed on how easy it is to use and how well it holds its shape. The only question now is how well it will dry to the form and whether or not it will pull off or dry as a large piece and potentially crack off.

Once they are primed, I plan to paint them simple and natural with my airbrush as a practice.

Pumpkin Spice Goodness

Slept like a log and woke up knowing there was goodness to be had when I reached the kitchen. I gotta say, certainly worth the effort, though the pumpkin spice itself rose to the top and my first sip was rather bitter. Scooped that off the top and everything is heavenly!

Here's the recipe if you want to enjoy the fabulousness of Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Holly Homemaker extension

Tonight I baked Pumpkin cakes and muffins. Why?

Because I found a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Lattes, and it required 2 tablespoons of pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin only comes in friggin hug and massively huge cans, 2 tablespoons doesn't even make a dent in it, so there'd be so much waste.

$20 later, I have the supplies to bake. I haven't baked since Junior High School. Hell, I made my 3rd batch of Jello the other day for crying out loud.

So anyways, here's some shots of the finished baked good, and a shot of the Spiced Pumpkin Latte mix. I saved it in the fridge for tomorrow.

I have to say that in a few short hours, I managed to clean my kitchen and bathroom top to bottom, clean the hallway and baseboards, bake all that stuff (without ANY 'kitchen power tool', everything I used was hand cranked or wooden spoon....hell, even the allspice was ground in a marble mortar and pestle), clean out my fridge, make a run to the grocery store and the dollar store, change and re-assign the space of the cat's litter box, rip apart, scrubbed down and reassemble my espresso machine (oh my lord she's a'shining!), clean and restock the cat's feeding and watering bowls - silver platter and crystal no less- and change all the garbage in the apartment.

I think I'm gonna sleep well tonight, if not slip into an exhaustion induced coma.

Little Pumpkins

Another fun thing from Halloween I picked up from STOLLOWEEN. A great Paper Mache artist and he offers tutorials for all of his work for anyone with the desire to recreate his work. I can see why people like me do, and the better portion of the planet don't. Paper mache is a messy, time consuming, tedious process that people like me love. To me, it's a meditation and time to myself that I dn't get all that often with my crazy life, made more crazy by the day.

Creative Little Day

Well, let's see what a Holly Homemaker I was today:

Bought some Popsicle moulds and made some refreshing Cranberry-Blueberry-Cherry Flavoured Energy Drink Ice Pops....a modern twist on an old favourite. Plus, I kinda missed them from being a kid. Paid like $0.50 for it, so no real loss.

Started to make some paper mache Pumpkins ( inspired by STOLLOWEEN ). I'll post pics later when they're a bit more done. At this point they have a single layer of paper mache on them and I have them in the oven. Yes, I'm baking my paper mache. I almost sewed myself an apron today the way I was spinning around in the kitchen.

Picked up some Jello Moulds of Halloween forms and made them in eerie Red Raspberry. Then learned the wonderful lesson of 'materials expand when heated, thus sometimes losing the seal on a mould' lesson. Perhaps this was a contributing factor of them being sold for $0.25.

Either way, my other half is off for training for a week, so I've tried to get myself into the 'home-mode' right off the get go. It'll be a good week for me to get all the little things done around the house. Looking to clean out the house a little bit, pump out a few Halloween decorations/props in the week so I can get a start on a scary house.

Speaking of which , I gotta go get some work done on a skeletal/zombie/who knows what it'll be when I'm done Halloween portrait.

Post those pics later tonight/early morning.