Shrunken heads for halloween
Kiddley reader Stacey suggested a fun halloween activity which I remember doing as a kid - Shrunken apple heads, which are incredibly simple and fun to do. The photo above is of some apples I carved this morning. It will take a couple of weeks before they dry out and shrink and reach their seriously spooky potential when they will be the perfect halloween decoration.
You will need:
A large apple
Lemon juice
Salt
2 cloves
Other decorative bits such as cotton wool or yarn for hair or a few grains of rice for teeth.
Apple peeler
Small knife
Mix a teaspoon or two of salt into half a cup of lemon juice. Peel the apple and wipe or brush on a layer of the lemon juice and salt mixture which will stop the apple from going brown.
Carve a face into the apple using the small knife. Carve out big features such as the eyes, a nose, a mouth, ears and so on. Push the cloves into the eye sockets, and place some rice grains in the mouth as teeth.
Leave the head to dry in a place where it’s warm and dry for a week or two. You can mould the heads a little by pushing them around as they dry.
Once they are dry you might want to glue on some cotton wool or yarn as hair. I think I might try to turn mine into a pirate with an eye patch, bandana around it’s head and a gold earring.
When you have your finished shrunken apple head it will look fabulously spooky displayed on a halloween party table, or perhaps you could display a group of them along a mantel amongst candles and other spooky paraphernalia.
I will post photos of my shrunken heads in a week or two. I’m not sure if I put enough salt in my solution. Let’s hope they don’t go mouldy in the meantime!
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We made apple head dolls when I was in Third Grade. I remember dipping them in vingear.
I love that y’all spell the word mould and we spell it mold.
Lady S October 11th, 2006 11:05
We did these in the oven on VERY low heat. When I was a kid, believe it or not, my mother had an old fisherman and woman - apple heads stuck on dressed bodies. They were popular as ornaments in rural Eastern Canada (Nova Scotia, PEI) in the late ’70’s!!!! I was TERRIFIED of them! lol
Angela October 11th, 2006 14:08
My sister-in-law just sent me an e-mail saying I HAVE to do this project and then blog about it. Too funny to see your post right after her message.
She said they’d done this at her sons’ school and the shrunken heads were incredible. They’d stuck the carved apples up on sticks they’d found in the school-yard & left them outside to dry.
Veronique October 12th, 2006 03:44
You never posted the photos. I’ve just made a couple and they’ve gon mouldy damn it. is there a chance I can just wipe it off and keep going, obviously they weren’t in a dry enough place.
Kel May 30th, 2007 22:09