I have a LOT of scrap styrofoam and wanted to try to use it for something other than clutter, so I decided on trying to make a Jack O' Lantern out of a few pieces of it.  It turned out alright, but I learned a lot of what NOT to do when working with styro in a shape other than flat. 

I picked a few pieces that were close in size and glued them all together using Gorilla Glue.  I used some cans to weight them down for a good adhesion.

     

Once they were good and dry, I used an old flat edge steak knife to do my first rough cut, getting most of the excess styrofoam off and a basic shape.

I tried out using a drywall saw to carve more of the excess off and get a better, more rounded shape.  I didn't like the saw, it made more of a mess than the smooth edged steak knife.

I also used the steak knife to carve out the grooves for the classic pumpkin look.  I used my handy-dandy orbital palm sander to get more shape and the rough edges smoothed off.

You can see where the Gorilla glue is, and the layers, but we'll take care of that later.

I used my Dremel to sand, carve, and smooth the grooves better and give more definition to it. 

This is what I ended up with once finished sanding.

Unfortunately, I forgot I had to hollow it out still.  This is the part that was a pain in the behind.  I had to use a combination of my hands, a knife, and the Dremel to get the inside cleared out enough.  If I were to do this over again, I'd cut circles in the centers of the scrap pieces I start off with - like donuts - and THEN glue them together.

I drew a face on the little guy, then used my knife to carve it out, just like a real pumpkin.

Because the styrofoam was still pretty lumpy and you could see the lines from the pieces of foam, I put a thin coat of joint compound over the exterior of it.  This also makes it easier to paint, since the foam tends to soak up the paint quickly.

This is what I ended up with, never finished painting the little fella, but he was a fun project and a good learning experience for carving foam.  One of my Florida Haunters, SpiderFreak, also attempted one of these.  His looks WAY better, and he used pink foam instead of the white.

In 2017, I FINALLY got around to finishing this little guy. Obviously, I won't use a real candle in it for display. I may repaint the inside of him since it's pretty dark.

 

 

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