I’ve Got My EYE on You!

One afternoon while scrolling through Pinterest I found a carved pumpkin I thought would be fun to try. In fact, it was two pumpkins - one inside the other - creating what looked like a giant eyeball in a socket. I did a trial run while visiting my sister in law Laura a couple of weeks ago. I learned a lot from that experiment, now I’m sharing them with you. At first Laura was sort of creeped out by the eye watching her, but she says she’s gotten used to it!

Here is how I went about recreating the pin, with a few additions of my own. The picture with the group of pumpkins is the Pinterest inspiration for this project.

• Two pumpkins
  
  • One large orange pumpkin
  • One smaller “ghost” white pumpkin that is small enough in diameter to fit inside the orange one.
    Note: If you can’t find a white pumpkin or they are too costly, just paint a traditional orange pumpkin with white acrylic paintWhite acrylic paint (optional)
• Paintbrush
• Permanent markers - black and any other color you want for the iris - I used yellow, green, and blue
• White glue (thinned with water), spray adhesive and/or Mod Podge
• White paper
• Scissors
  
• Sharp knife or pumpkin carving tools
• Light or glow stick

If you didn’t purchase a “ghost” pumpkin turn the smaller pumpkin on its side or balance in a pot upside down. Paint at least the bottom two thirds white. I used latex white semi-gloss exterior white house paint. You can also use spray paint it you would like. I found acrylic paint didn’t adhere to the pumpkin peel and flaked off when putting it inside the larger pumpkin.

• Measure the width of the base of the smaller pumpkin and draw the shape of an eye socket onto the larger one. Make sure it’s wide enough to show the eyeball when inserted inside.
• From the back, cut out an opening in the large pumpkin big enough to insert the smaller pumpkin in, base first. Then clean out the seeds and pumpkin “guts”.

• Draw a circle for the iris of the eyeball on the white paper or on the white pumpkin you purchased. You can use a round object like a soup can or other round container to make it symmetrical.
• Using the black marker, color in the pupil, leave a small area of white to show a “glint” in the eye.

• I suggest you choose three colors for the iris to make it look more realistic. If you are unsure, just look in the mirror or at someone’s eyes in your house. You will notice they usually are not one flat color but several shades of different colors.
• Using the lightest of your chosen colors, start adding color to the iris, beginning at the pupil and going out about 1/3 of the way into the iris space.
• Fill in with the medium shade, extending some “rays” even farther into the iris space.
• Next, finish filling in with your final color.
• Using the black marker, draw a black border around the iris.

• Cut the iris out of the paper
• Since the bottom of the pumpkin is concave, I added some pillow stuffing to raise it up, making it convex
• Apply white glue thinned with a little water to the back of your iris.
• Place it on the bottom of the pumpkin, then apply a coat of mod podge or thinned white glue. If the markers you used are water soluble, be careful not to smear the color when doing this step. You can also use a spray adhesive to apply the iris, or try painting directly onto the pumpkin. I didn’t do that because I let my pumpkin dry while I created the iris. If you have a white pumpkin, go ahead and draw directly onto the pumpkin base.

• Try placing the eyeball into the socket and check for fit. I needed to do some fine tuning to the socket size.
• With the eyeball out of the socket, carve the eyelids and eyelashes around the opening.

• It’s time to bring this project together!
• Carefully place eyeball into socket and check for fit.
• My eyeball had a flat side that I purposely placed as its down side so it would not roll.
• If yours doesn’t want to sit correctly, use discarded pieces you cut out and anchor them with toothpicks to hold the eyeball in place.

• My husband thought it should have red veins in the white of the eye so I carved off some of the white paint to reveal the orange “bloodshot” eyeball. Pumpkins would have orange blood, right?
• I placed a light behind the eye and put it on our doorstep. You can put in a glow stick if you prefer.
• I hope you try this out, and please share any ideas you come up with when you do it. I think I should have two - one on each side of the door - creepy...