fruity beauties

September 9, 2004 10:56 PM

Watermelon carving - a gallery of intricate work and eclectic subjects. In Thailand, there is a tradition of elaborately carving fruit and vegetables, especially when preparing foods for royalty or as part of festivals such as Loi Krathong. This gallery offers some pictorial instructions; books, tools, and sample instructions are also available from the Temple of Thai.
posted by madamjujujive (15 comments total)

Impressive as always, MJJ. Thanks!
posted by dobbs at 11:16 PM on September 9, 2004

This guy just opened up a restaurant down the street. I can't wait to check it out.
posted by majick at 11:23 PM on September 9, 2004

Super nice stuff thankyou. Now, back to making my watermelon helmet.
posted by bdave at 11:27 PM on September 9, 2004

I am unworthy.

4 July 1999.
Blown up at midnight.
posted by maggieb at 11:35 PM on September 9, 2004

If you're gonna spend $100 on a watermelon, you might as well make something nice out of it, I guess. (Actually, I exaggerate - I saw a nice 1kg watermelon for only 2400 yen the other day.)
posted by bashos_frog at 12:34 AM on September 10, 2004

Oh wow, those are amazing. I especially like the one they lit up, the glow is mesmerizing. Great links, thank you so much for sharing!
posted by headspace at 4:19 AM on September 10, 2004

Here's another gorgeous one that gets lit up at the end, headspace, and quite a few more in this fruitcarver's gallery. Watermelon seems to be a fave for figural carvings, as well; see here, and the fourth photo here, and my favorite, the Dionysus figure in the second photo here. And, Bdave, here's something just for you!
posted by taz at 5:56 AM on September 10, 2004

bashos_frog, is that how much watermelons cost in Japan? Yikes!

Great link additions, taz...here's another chapeau for bdave if he wants to get fancy. And maggieb, that looks pretty festive to me - of course, I have been known to buy my watermelon pre-sliced ;-(

I know - let's all meet at majick's house this weekend and we can try that new restaurant - looks fun!
posted by madamjujujive at 6:39 AM on September 10, 2004

Oh my god, those are beautiful. I've seen elaborately carved pumpkins, but I don't remember ever seeing such lovely watermelons.
posted by etoile at 7:26 AM on September 10, 2004

Hey! Who knew fruit hats for cats were so popular!
posted by taz at 7:37 AM on September 10, 2004

Watermelon fans may also enjoy the Gallery (the links are in the right-hand column - one NSFW accessed on solving a mathematical problem) at ????? (Watermelon), a nice recreational maths site by Yevgeny Sklyaryevskiy, a maths/computing journalist in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Watermelons being a major product of Uzbekistan, he takes them as his site theme. Machine translation of the Gallery page here.
posted by raygirvan at 9:09 AM on September 10, 2004

The last one (#12) on this page is truly meta-craft.
posted by of strange foe at 11:39 AM on September 10, 2004

Wow. I feel lucky if I can carve a face in the halloween pumpkin and emerge from the task with all my fingers. Cool link MJJJ!
posted by dejah420 at 12:34 PM on September 10, 2004

if fruit could scream i'd carve it every day!
posted by quonsar at 3:02 PM on September 10, 2004

*thought he invented watermelon carving six weeks ago*
posted by eddydamascene at 7:03 PM on September 10, 2004