Thread: Help with fake pumpkin patch please

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This year, my premise is that there is a pumpkin patch growing over an abandoned graveyard and the pumpkins are taking on the faces of the tormented soles below ground. Since I am covering an area about 50' square, there will need to be a lot of pumpkin vines. I am building the vines by taking wire and wrapping it in plastic grocery sacks, melting them together and faux painting them. I plan on making the leaves on metal stakes that I can just push into the ground so that I don't have to attach/store the leaves on the vines. Where I need help is with making the leaves. I will need probably a couple hundred of them and need a relatively quick way to make them. I have some ideas, but none of them are a perfect match. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Here are my requirements:
They can be made fairly quickly
They can hold up to potentially a good amount of rain
They are sturdy enough to not only be pushed into the ground, but hold their shape for at least a month outside.

Thanks.

Here is a picture of a pumpkin leaf for reference:

Gotta be larger than 50 foot squared, right? That's about a 7 foot by 7 foot area.

I'd look into a heavy milled plastic. Create a quick form that you can press leaf cut outs onto and then give them a quick blast with a heat gun, or heat from something. That would give them the middle crease/dip that you'd need. Then glue or tape them to wire.

Then go with matte/flat spray paints. Do one coat to get full coverage, then apply your faux painting technique after the initial coat dries so you have consistency.

Damn, I'm loving this idea. I am DYING to see what your vines are looking like right now. Do you have anything to show yet?

After thinking about this for a while, I'm so going to do this, too. Sign me up.

I'd love to see your vines.

Perhaps more coffee would allow my brain to work better. Yes, the yard is at least 50' per side....which works out to....well more than 50' square....2500' square is what my calculator says.

I like the heavy plastic idea. I could maybe use heavy plastic for the leaves and plastic tubing for the stem with wire inside to hold it up.

Here is a test vine with a base coat and my wrapping contraption. I use a drill clamped to a table with a velcro strap holding the power button as slow as I can get it to go.

I don't know where the attached pictures came from. I'll try to edit them out in a bit.

So you're wrapping the bags around the wire using the drill to rotate the wire? I assume you're using a heat gun on the bag then, right?

Is you're plan to do long continuous vines, across the area, or are you going to create several plants with vines spidering out from a central location each?

Correct. I haven't really figured out the whole layout yet. I am making multiple ~10' vines and leaving the loops open so that I can attach them either together or to a central spot. I wanted to make sure that the concept was sound before completing the vision. I also need to make at least one of the pumpkins to see a time frame. I plan on making the pumpkins out of paper mache, monster mud or carpet glue. The leaves are the tricky part, then rest should fall together pretty quickly.

I'm solid with the paper mache pumpkins. We made 10 or so last year. If you need some help or photos of what we did just let me know there. We were already planning on making 20 to 30 for this year.

Did you go through quite a few grocery bags to cover the wire like that? It kind of looks like a layer or two. Also, after the bags have cooled, to they stay put pretty well? Is the wire still shape-able afterwards?

I was first thinking that you'd organicially shaped the wire and then melt the bags to it.

The wire I'm using I bought at Home Depot in the roofing/fencing area. I think it was 100' for about $5. The vine I show is about 8' long and one layer of bags. I didn't really pay attention to the number of bags I used, but I would say about 5. I might add another layer later. I cut the bags down the side to get more length out of them. The plastic is kind of poofy, I didn't put a lot of force on the wire when I wrapped them. If you start the next bag about 3/4 through the previous one, then they should be seamless. I didn't do that and ended up with fly away edges that I taped down and reheated. The first picture I posted shows a definite line right of center and I think that is tape. Heating the plastic holds it in place other than the tape, there is no adhesive on it. The wire keeps it's properties It can be bent or molded however. I plan on looping up the vines like an extension cord to store them. That is one of the reasons I want separate leaves.

That's very cool. Can't wait to see the finished product!