A wee bit devilish

Here's last year's pumpkin:

Here's last year's pumpkin with a candle in it :-)

It's supposed to be a little imp hiding behind a leaf in the underbrush. The hardest part, but most satisfying in the end, was shaving down the leaf to a minimal width that would allow a fair amount of light through and show the silhouette of the imp behind it.
This was largely carved by dremel although the big spaces were taken out with a knife. I cut too close on the tail and the ears and ended up clipping them off, but it was easy enough to reattach them with little pieces of toothpick. On Halloween night, some drunk asshole put his knee through it--an unfortunate fate, but this sort of art is always ephemeral anyhow.

Pirates on the Panama Canal

This pirate costume was cobbled together for a pirate-themed birthday/going away party my last night at the BCI field station a couple summers ago. Not a Halloween costume, but a costume nonetheless. Though everyone was doing intensive field work, parties were not uncommon (3-4 during the 6 weeks I was there). From the box of party knick-knacks available in the study lounge I found a belt to cinch one of my field shirts with and a floppy hat that I pinned up to make a tricorn. The cravat and sleeve ruffles were made with paper towels and masking tape, and everyone's eyepatch was sharpied notebook paper except for Dana who sported a piece of driftwood (3rd from left above). Lastly, I borrowed a razor from another student to make a more roguish shape of the facial hair I'd been growing out all trip. Quite dashing, no?

--"You asked me to draw you a tattoo of Poseidon. You never specified I couldn't draw him with a monster dong. . . 


. . .yeah, that's sharpie."