Artsy Smartsy - Shrunken heads

Today we learned how to make shrunken heads from apples. You peel the apple and then create a "face" by cutting away the portions of the apple that are not part of the face leaving behind the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and any other features you want the face to have. So, you kind of have to think opposite of what you want to create. I believe the technique is called "relief."

After the head is done, you decorate it with cloves and then roll it in lemon juice. The cloves and lemon juice act to preserve the apples. Over time, they dry out and shrink and give the "shrunken head" look. We saw some made the previous year and they looked great!

Sadly, a couple of our heads attracted some fruit flies over the next few days and before we knew it, itty bitty maggots were eating the heads. So, what did we do? Bagged up those apples and put them on display to watch those maggots turn into flies, of course! The wonders of homeschooling...an art project one moment, a biology lesson the next.