Organic Vessels - Melon Bowl, Zucchini Glasses, Apple Box!

While we pass by a food court, we would always be amazed by the Vegetables and Fruits made in a unique shape or often abstract art with fruits/veggies gets displayed right?!

I always admire those skills but never tried one before. So wanted to try one now!

Aaah.... What about making them as vessels and have the cut fruits/veggies that could be placed on it for Display!

That's great idea... So, let's give a try!

X-acto knife

Knife

Old-unused refill of a pen or a nib of a pen

Kitchen cloth

Paint brush - small

To reduce oxidation in fruits especially Apple:

Lemon juice

Vinegar

Though i have used lemon juice at the start i find that vinegar helped to retain the colour of the inner part of apple!

To make the melon bowl, lets make the water melon washed and pat dry.

Other required supplies:

Drafting compass

Pencil

Stencil for circles

Ruler

Draw a circle by using drafting compass on the top of the melon. The pencil would leave a light impression on the outer side of the melon which would be easier for us to cut over, using x-acto knife.

Draw over the pencil marking, with x-acto knife (not too deep). We have to pull out this part, to turn the surface to pale inner skin of the melon.

Using a cutter, i pulled out the part.

I used the Collar attached to the handle part of the X-acto knife to poke a hole at the centre of the peeled out part.

Further deepened the hole using X-acto knife to get the red part of the melon.

I used the circle making stencil, to draw a fine line over the peeled out white part with pencil.

And also create lines on both diagonals so that the design we put on will be symmetrical. This is much required else we might miss the design and it may be asymmetrical.

I used 3 sizes of circle stencil, for bigger and further smaller circles of the design.

Now, going into the design. I wanted to have:

1. Simple petal pattern at the centre

2. Heart shaped pattern around it(the layer around petal pattern)

3. Two layered curve like structure(the layer around heart-shaped pattern)

And a red layer heart at the inner side of the white layered heart structure.

Now lets to the dark green of the outer skin and make some bright pale inner side pattern in it.

I used circle making stencil, to make a three levels of circle with decreasing size of the order from outer to inner.

For making slight impression on the outer layer, i used the nib of a ball-point pen refill. And used X-acto to carve through.

In between to clean up the bits and pieces on the design layer, i used paint brush and gently removed it. I did use tweezers to remove bigger pieces that have fallen on it.

And a simple design on the outer most layer.

For making Apple box, it is almost same as melon. In addition, i often dipped the X-acto knife in lemon juice to reduce it turning brown at the inner side of the apple, while we make the design.

And i find that vinegar is more effective than lemon.