Cardboard Sphere Jack-o-lantern

I made this project for a school assignment. I chose to make a jack-o-lantern because I think that they are always a cool halloween decoration, but in the past I saw that they would rot and get gross after some time, so this is a solution to that.

Materials:

Cardboard

Clear tape

Foam / Paper / anything you can make a shape to trace out of

Green/Brown Pipe cleaner

Paint

Hot glue

Lights

Boxcutter

Ruler/measuring tape

Dremel

To make a sphere, specifically map globes, a lot of the time people use segments called "Gores". To make a sphere from flat cardboard, you need to make gores and form them together. This will make a sphere that is hollow inside, allowing you to place a light inside it.

First, you need to measure how you will draw the template gore. You can use either paper or foam, but it helps to draw the gore with the right proportions on paper. This is a good resource to find how you have to draw the gores so that they fit together into a sphere.

Once you have a template, you can use it to make all the gores you need. Put the template onto the sheets of cardboard and use your boxcutter to cut out the shape. Repeat this until you have enough gores to make a sphere. I measured my segments so that there would be twelve of them.

Make sure that you cut so that the medium of the cardboard is perpendicular to the length of the gore. This will make bending it easier. I had cardboard that was two layers thick, so I also tried to flatten mine, but you shouldn't need to do this if you have thinner cardboard.

Now that you have the gores you need, you can put them together into a sphere. First, bend the cardboard segments into semicircles. They should be able to fit together as seen in the image above if you measured it correctly. You can first use tape to hold them together temporarily to make sure the shape is good. Then, start hot gluing the segments of the cardboard together from the inside. Once you have hot glued all the segments together, you can take off the tape.

It's fine if the sphere is not perfect and has holes at the top of bottom, as that will help make the top and bottom flatter. If you have holes at the top or bottom, don't try to hot glue them shut.

For this step, you will need to use a Dremel tool that has the flat circle to cut lines like a circular saw. Cut whatever face you want into the sphere. You can use your boxcutter to help with corners.

You could paint before carving like I did, but that is not a good idea if you want to avoid having to fix things afterwards. I had to repaint some parts due to the Dremel scratching off some of the paint in other areas.

Now you can apply paint to the sphere to turn it into a pumpkin. I used Crayola orange tempura paint, but any paint that works with cardboard is fine.

As said earlier, I did this step before cutting out the face. You should paint after cutting instead to make things easier.

To make the pumpkin look good, there are a couple more things to add to it that don't require any tape or glue. First, you can make a stem for the pumpkin using a pipe cleaner. It can either be green or brown. Bend it into a stem shape with one end having a part that can be put through the top of the sphere to keep it locked in place.

Finally, you need a light. I used an electric tea light, since it fits well, but you can use anything you want really, as long as it is bright enough.