3d illusion arts: American Sculptor Carves World’s Biggest Halloween Pumpkin

American Sculptor Carves World’s Biggest Halloween Pumpkin

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 11:08 AM PDT

You might think you had your hands full with this year’s Halloween Pumpkin, but American sculptor Scott Cully had to carve his way through a 1,800-pound giant pumpkin.

Scott Cully has made a name for himself by carving overgrown pumpkins, and he even held the previous record for the world’s largest jack o’lantern, but this year he managed to beat his own record and get another mention in the Guinness Book. It took him two days, working at a pace of 100 pounds per hour, to work his way through the giant pumpkin, grown by Chris Stevens, from Wisconsin, but he managed to do it just in time for the big Halloween party. The event took place at the New York Botanical Garden, and it’s probably still on display, so you can check it out, if you’re in the Big Apple.

Scott Cully started carving pumpkins in 1988, when he and his wife got his hands on a 400-pound pumpkin, and, inspired by a few bottles of quality English hard cider, they began carving it into a jack o’lantern. Then he just kept on creating new designs, into bigger and bigger pumpkins. Using just a handful of kitchen utensils, Scott stays true to the tradition of creating jack o’lanterns, by creating scary Halloween pumpkins, with big mouths that kids can slide their heads through, and big threatening teeth.

Believe it or not, Scott Cully absolutely hates pumpkin pie. Ironic, isn’t it?

Photos by GETTY IMAGES via Daylife

American Sculptor Carves World’s Biggest Halloween Pumpkin was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Zhang Dexuan – The World’s Only Hair-Woven Portraits Artist

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 10:10 AM PDT

While Zhang Dexuan’s hair-woven portraits may by just slightly bigger than a fingernail, but their incredible detail require weeks, sometimes months of work.

66-year-old Zhang Dexuan, from China’s Sichuan province, claims he is the only artist in the world able to create detailed portraits from strands of human hair. Using just five simple tools and a magnifying glass, Zhang manages to created incredible portraits, from hundreds of hair strands collected from members of his family. Judging by the tools used, you might think the art of weaving hair is pretty simple, Zhang Dexuan claims he is the only hair weaving artist on Earth, and has practiced it for the last 54 years.

The average diameter of a young person’s hair strand is 0.7 mm, while old people’s hair is just 0.5 mm in diameter and Zhang makes use of both kinds in his artworks, so you can imagine how delicate the process of creating the portraits really is. Just so you can get an idea of the difficulty of this ancient art, Zhang Dexuan has to control his breathing while working, so he doesn’t break the hair strands.

At the end of October, during an exhibition in Chengdu, Zhang Dexuan explained the process of creating his unique hair-woven portraits. To create an artwork more than 10-cm-thick, he first creates a blueprint more than 100 times larger and then spends months weaving each individual strand of hair. Though each portrait contains around a few hundred hair strands, Zhang spends a good amount of time just selecting the best ones. On average, he ends up picking just one hair out of 10,000 examined strands.

When he was just 30 years old, Zhang Dexuan remained the only man able to create portraits from hair, and despite his efforts to convince his children to carry on this ancient tradition, the difficulty and patience required was too much for them to handle. Last year, in a desperate effort to find an apprentice, he exhibited his work in Chengdu, and much to his surprise, his work attracted a lot of attention. He is now happy to be teaching 20 apprentices who will keep the art of hair weaving alive long after he’s gone.

Among the personalities depicted in Zhand Dexuan’s portraits we mention actor Jackie Chan, American president Barrack Obama and the Mona Lisa.

Photos by CFP

Zhang Dexuan – The World’s Only Hair-Woven Portraits Artist was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

Horror Film Fans Have Their Very Own Zombie Wedding

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 08:30 AM PDT

Why should a trivial thing like death split up a loving couple, when they could be together for all eternity, as flesh eating zombies? I’m sure that’s what Tracy and Andy Monaghan thought when they decided to have their fairytale zombie wedding.

Tracy and Andy have been married for seven years, but their first ceremony wasn’t exactly what any of them had dreamed of. She was pregnant with their son, they didn’t have a lot of money and to top things off, it was pouring on the big day. Tracy remembers that by 7 pm that day, she wanted nothing more than to go to sleep. With this kind of memories from what was supposed to be the happiest day of their lives, its’ no surprise the English couple wanted a second chance to set things right.

Andy Monaghan has been a fan of horror movies for as long as he can remember. Tracy, on the other hand, had only seen one horror movie, before meeting Andy, and that one petrified her. But as their relationship progressed, she became as hooked on horror flicks as her soul mate, so when they talked about renewing their vows during a fairytale ceremony, a zombie wedding was the obvious choice.

In front of a congregation of zombies, the couple showed up dressed appropriately (Andy wore a suit made of “human skin”, while Tracy opted for a black velvet dress, instead of the traditional white one) and boasting some really impressive makeup. Instead of the traditional wedding march, Tracy walked up to the aisle to “All we want to do is Eat Your Brains”, and their vows included phrases like “I promise to care for you as we decay together” and “so that your rotting, bloated corpse may live beside me for eternity, or until someone removes your head.” Zombie priest Mike Smith ended the dark ceremony with a long awaited “you may now eat the bride!”

After their unusual wedding, the zombie couple, accompanied by their undead friends, took to the streets of their home town of Worchester, for a zombie march similar tow what we all know from Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video.

via Daily Mail

Horror Film Fans Have Their Very Own Zombie Wedding was originally posted at OddityCentral.com

China Inaugurates Teapot-Shaped Museum of Tea Culture

Posted: 01 Nov 2010 07:42 AM PDT

At 73.8 meters in height, and featuring a floor area of over 5,000 square meters, this unique teapot museum of Meitan is the world’s biggest teapot-shaped building.

China’s Meitan County is known as the “hometown of Chinese green tea”, and the reputation of Meitan green tea has surpassed national borders, so there was really no better place to build a museum of tea culture. As fascinating as visiting this place may be to tea lovers, we’re more interested in its unique architecture. Shaped like a giant clay teapot, and accompanied by a smaller building shaped like a tea cup, the Meitan tea museum is one of the weirdest looking museums in the world. Seen from a distance, it looks like just a strange teapot sculpture, but as you approach it, the windows give away its true purpose.

With a maximum diameter of 24 meters, and a capacity of 28,360.23 cubic meters, the Meitan tea museum is by far the world’s largest teapot.