Just In Time For Halloween: Firefly Crew Silhouette Jack-O-Lanterns!

POSTED BY: Rei
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 03:10
VIEWED: 12546
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REI

Sunday, October 23, 2005 5:00 AM

Well, just some background first: every Halloween, I carve realistic jack-O-lanterns like you sometimes see in contests or on TV. You start with a picture that has strong shadowing. You then hand-edit and enhance contrast until it's black and white, and still looks right. Then, you make it "possible" - you can't have floating black areas, you can't have too tight of curves, and the whole thing must remain structurally sound.

This year, in honor of Serenity, I wanted to make Firefly-related Jack-O-Lanterns. However, I don't have time to carve *everyone*. As a contribution, however, I decided to make cutout graphics for others who want to carve them :)

The cutouts are available at:

http://www.daughtersoftiresias.org/pumpkins/firefly/

There should be a diagram for each of the crew members, and one of the ship itself.

Don't be intimidated - they're not as hard as they look :) You draw the drawing onto your pumpkin. You then use a drill to carve - not a knife! Knives put too much pressure on the detail; never use them, even for long straight lines. Use a small drill bit. If you mess up, toothpicks can be used for repair, although you want to avoid this. They can also shore up structurally weak areas.

Don't carve too early. Pumpkins become structurally weaker over time after they've been carved, especially if it goes below freezing. Friday evening before Halloween might be a good time this year - you'd get a couple days with it outside before Halloween, but it should still look nice on Halloween. If you want to carve sooner, you may want to widen some of the lines that bear structural loads.

If you have any questions, just ask! :) Note that while I did check over all of them and try my best to make them all structurally sound, since I haven't carved any of these yet, there are possibly "impossible" or weak areas that I didn't notice; use your own judgement. :)

If you carve one, be sure to post a link to a picture here on the forum!

[meme@daughtersoftiresias fortune]# fortune firefly
Inara: "There's an energy about a person that's difficult to hide. You try to feel that..."

Mal: "And then you try to feel the energy around their credit account. It has a sort of aura..."

MEANGOLDFISH

Sunday, October 23, 2005 5:23 AM

holy balls. those look hard.

REI

Sunday, October 23, 2005 6:22 AM

It's not as tough as it looks - and once they're on a pumpkin, they look wonderful :) I wouldn't recommend firefly.gif for a novice, but mal.gif and book.gif wouldn't be too bad.

I'll be doing at least one, probably two. Still not sure which ones ;)

[meme@daughtersoftiresias NewGraphics]$ fortune firefly
Mal: "Whatever happens, remember I love you."

Zoe: "Sir?"

Mal: "Because you're my wife."

Zoe: "Right, sir... honey."

REI

Sunday, October 23, 2005 6:55 AM

I just added one more (serenity.gif). I think I may do that one with one of my pumpkins. Anyways, enjoy!

[meme@daughtersoftiresias ~]$ fortune firefly
Wash: "You want a slinky dress? I can buy you a slinky dress. Captain, can I have money for a slinky dress?"

Jayne: "I'll chip in."

Zoe: (to Jayne) "I can hurt you."

NYWOE

Sunday, October 23, 2005 2:42 PM

When I click on the link, I get a "The page cannot be displayed" message. :(

Anyway, I'll share with you the link to the patterns that I made.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/nywoe2/album?.dir=ef84&.src=ph&store=&pr
odid=&.don e= http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/ph//my_photos

I'm not sure which ones I'm going to carve either.

Be sure to post pictures in the Blue Sun Room when you're done carving! I'd love to see what another Browncoat carver comes up with!

_____________________________________
If you're an Arizonan and a Browncoat, come join us:

www.azbrowncoats.com
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/AZ_Browncoats/

URSULA

Sunday, October 23, 2005 4:38 PM

How damn cool!!!

REI

Sunday, October 23, 2005 5:32 PM

"Page cannot be displayed"? Are you sure? Both I and the person who posted immediately after me were able to access it.

I'm a bit confused by your pictures - they're tricolor, not black and white. How do you plan to do tricolor? Drill only partway down, and drill across the entire area?

[meme@daughtersoftiresias NewGraphics]$ fortune firefly
Drunk: "Hey, you gonna toast unification with me? Six years today, the
Alliance sent the Browncoats runnin', pissin' their pants... You know, your
coat is kinda a brownish color."

Mal: "It was on sale."

NYWOE

Sunday, October 23, 2005 5:48 PM

Yeah, I'm not sure why the link isn't working for me. Weird. Just make sure you post your finished products in the Blue Sun Room so I can see them. :)

Yeah, the three-color technique is to carve half-way through on the gray areas, then carve all the way through on the areas that are black on the patterns (white on the mock-ups). I learned how to do this at www.carvingpumpkins.com. This is the first year that I'm attempting to carve a face from a pattern that I made myself. (Although I made a so-so Serenity ship pumpkin last year.) So we'll see how it goes... I suspect that the Inara pattern will fall apart if I try to carve it, but any of the others should be all right. *crosses fingers*

_____________________________________
If you're an Arizonan and a Browncoat, come join us:

www.azbrowncoats.com
http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/AZ_Browncoats/

REI

Sunday, October 23, 2005 6:18 PM

Interesting... what's your IP? I'm checking my logs to try and see what went wrong. I see a lot of "200" status codes ("OK"), with a few 304s ("Not Modified"), and the occasional strange 301 ("Moved Permanently"). There may be more than I'm not seing.

Next year I'm going to have to try out that three-color method :) I imagine you have a lot more troubles bearing shear loads with it, but it should provide some interesting options, and should help at least support tensile loads. I had thought of it before, but never really tried.

[meme@daughtersoftiresias NewGraphics]$ fortune firefly
Kaylee: "How can you be sure Inara just don't wanna see you? Sometimes
people have feelings - I'm referring here to people..."

Mal: "Y'all were watching, I take it?"

(guilty glances)

Mal: "Did you see us fight?"

Kaylee: "No."

Mal: "Trap."

POTIONSMISTRESS

Sunday, October 23, 2005 6:30 PM

Very cool, but they do look challenging

"Who's flying this thing? Oh, that would be me." ~Wash
[IMG][/IMG]

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