Projects
.NET Pumpkin
Even though Halloween is not a big deal in Europe, for 2006 I wanted to do something to at least decorate my desk a little, so I decided to carve a Halloween pumpkin.
The Victim
I said I wanted something for my desk, so I wasn't going for a real pumpkin, but something of the same family. I went to the supermarket and found the cutest little squash just waiting to be carved. Since I didn't think of taking pictures of the process, here's the final result:
How To
The first thing I did was create the design on the computer. I used Microsoft Expression Design just because it's a program that I like and because I have a vector version of the .NET logo in their format. I got a spiderweb image from, well, the web and figured out a way to place the .NET logo so that (a) it looked well, and (b) it would be possible to carve without having any detached "islands."
With that done, I traced the design onto the squash and took out a knife to start carving. What I didn't count on was that the little thing has the hardest shell I've ever seen on a vegetable, so forget the knife, time to bring out the power tools.
I used a drill with a circle cutter to open the base of the squash to empty it. Once that was done, I used a Dremel tool and different bits to carefully cut out the design. That took me about a day and I ended up all covered in white-orange bits and smelling like squash.
Candle powered?
Traditionally, Halloween pumpkins are candle-lit, but mine was (a) too small and (b) supposed to be placed on my desk, so candles were out of the question.
What I did instead was connect 3 or 4 red LEDs in series to the serial port of a spare computer that I have on my desk using some CAT5 cable. That's why you can see a cable coming out (and going in actually) of the pumpkin.
Was it fun?
If I still had a Dremel tool, I wouldn't hesitate to do it again :)
