Brain Halloween Decor

I wanted a brain specimen for the spooky table.  I decided to make one for free rather than try to buy one.  This brain is made with play dough and painted.

I made the play dough, using Vanessa's recipe here.  It seemed like it was a failure as I was cooking it, all lumpy and reminded me of the goo that crawls off Layne Myer's plate in Better Off Dead.  But once I kneaded it, the play dough was perfect and smooth.  I don't know what I was thinking with the color, I should have just left it out and kept the dough white.

For the base I cut a circle of cardboard and covered it with tin foil.

To help support my brain, I used two egg holes from an egg carton.

After I had a brain dome, I rolled out thin snakes of dough and pressed them on in squiggles, making one half at a time to kind of create a real brain shape with the center sulcus? (anatomy was a while ago).

Once the other side was on, my brain was formed and I let it dry for a few days.

I ended up putting it on a drying rack to let the bottom dry too. I was really impressed with the homemade dough once it was dry.  It held up well and didn't really even crack anywhere.  I went with homemade to save money and because I was too lazy to go to the store just for play dough, and I think it worked better.

Once my brain was dry, I actually spray painted it grey with primer.  Mainly because I had the weird green.

Then I used acrylic craft paint and painted the worms a fleshy pink.  I didn't paint down in between the cracks on purpose, so it would kind of have contrast.

It didn't seem real or scary enough, so I watered down some red paint and just sloppily brushed a little on the top of the worms.

The finished brain.

I had looked for a dome cover at the thrift stores, but found nothing close.  I ended up taking this sloped vase instead for $.50.  I wrote the info on cardstock and burned the edges, acidentally burning some writing actually, oops! then just taped it on.

I chose the name of the brain from the movie Young Frankenstein.

If you've seen the movie, you probably recognized that right away.  It's a Halloween classic.

Because the drying time, this little project spanned a few days, but it was fun.  Obviously when I made the play dough, my little boy got his own chunk to play with while I made the brain.

Then he finger painted while I painted the brain.  So a few artistic afternoons came from this brain.

I have seen brains in stores, and that would be easier obviously, and I don't know that a homemade brain looks that much better or anything, but it was pretty much free, and created little activities with the kid!

I think it's time to reveal the whole creepy table scape next.