The Latest Fairy Abode: The Pumpkin House!

My fascination began with this picture...

This photoshopped frosty pumpkin home was an 2006 art entry by Worth1000 for a contest entitled "Edible Architecture" http://fx.worth1000.com/entries/251729/pumpkin-cabin I found the pic floating around the web and had to do some digging to find the original source. Just so cool!

When building miniature fairy homes, artists often think of mushrooms or twig structures with moss roofs. How about using a pumpkin! With the popularity of resin and foam realistic looking pumpkins, this becomes a very do-able idea. In late summer through Thanksgiving, you can find these in varying sizes, shapes, and colors at Walmart or various craft stores like Micheals. There are also paper mache pumpkins that are easy to work with too, found in limited quantities at arts and crafts stores. They tend to be a bit smaller too, about 5 or 6" tall. The resin and foam pumpkins, on the other hand, can be large enough to make a two story dollhouse in. All of these are fairly easy to cut and the nice thing is, the scraps can become gazebo or porch roofs! I've even thought about lining 3 pumpkins up beside eachother with doorways cut between, making a 'ranch style' fairy home. I am currently building a single pumpkin structure and will be posting pics soon...

Various Artist Examples:
I found a variety of miniature Pumpkin homes online.

Above, a very cute little Pumpkin home by Grahzinas: http://grazhinas-dollhouses.blogspot.com/

Steve Weller and Tori West of MiniMotion studio have a very detailed tutorial on how to make your own 2 story pumpkin dollhouse. Their example is pictured below and info is available at: http://www.minimotion.com/HOWTO/quarterpumpkinhowto.html

Above FimoFrenzy of Flickr used her pumpkin as a case to hold a spooky diorama. More pictures available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16666966@N00/275553398/

Below, artist Cindy Gould made a smaller scale dollhouse using an altered paper mache pumpkin. She gave it a rustic interior look with wallpaper made out of book pages... a fairy who uses what she has lying around is a thrifty fiary indeed! To see more of Cindy's work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindyg/1538253972/





Below is an unusual ceramic black pumpkin witch house by Bethany Lowe available at http://www.cydneysantiques.com/index.php?cPath=71&main_page=index

Actual Pumpkin Homes:
To my surprise, when searching for miniature pumpkin dwellings, I came across several beautiful actual homes! Below is a house featured on the site Unusual Homes. http://www.lostinjersey.com/house/house.html

It was built in 1925 entirely be a blind man who knew nothing about carpentry and had very little economic resources. Looks to be maid of local timbers and field stone. Concerning the collection of odd homes on his website, the writer says "I'm always curious about these unusual homes that seem to be everywhere. Who built it and why? And who lives there now? What are the people like? Are they completely oddballs or are they normal like you and me? Although every homeowner is different, one thing is the same in almost every case: every homeowner is unique, sometimes more so then their house!"

Note: I cannot find the writer's name but the Blog is LostInJersey http://lostinjersey.wordpress.com/

Next I have the odd pumpkin log cabin found on Tom's LogHomeBlog. He didn't provide any info about it but it is an actual home. It looks like painted metal sheeting over the rounded log structure. http://www.logcabindirectory.com/blog/?p=1011Onwards! I also found a home famed for its yearly gigantic amazing display of Jack O'Lanterns. It is in Kenova, sitting on the banks of the Big Sandy River separating West Virginia from Kentucky. This town is an important stop on the way between the major cities of Huntington and Ashland. The name is a unique combination of the words "Kentucky," "Ohio," and "Virginia".

"Kenova is also a home of world-famous Pumpkin House with about 3,030 pumpkins, carved with everything from presidents and the St. Louis arch to West Virginia-themed pumpkins. The Pumpkin House, located at 748 Beech St., Kenova, recently got a national exposure when Emmy-Award-winning NBC day-time talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, gave this Victorian home some props." Doug Nicols, photo by Cabell County Schools http://www.greaterhuntington.com/city/surroundingareas/kenova.asp

On BlissTree.com there is a shot of an older home painted like a Jack O'Lantern. The author didn't have much to say except that it is in Concord? http://www.blisstree.com/articles/jack-o-lantern-homes-69/

In searching for 'pumpkin homes', I additionally found many shack type structers composed of wooden planks layered like shelves for pumpkins to rest upon. The pumpkins then make the walls.

Well there you go folks! Now go shack your fairy up in a magic pumpkin ;)