How to Make a Lycopodium Pumpkin
- 1). Hollow out and carve a Halloween pumpkin. Because fire will be the centerpiece of your lycopodium pumpkin, you may want your design to reference fire-breathing dragons, demons or similar characters. Make sure that your pumpkin has a solid lid at the top, and that your pumpkin has holes carved into the design so air can get in.
- 2). Cut a small hole in the back of the pumpkin and run Tygon tubing (or other heat-resistant tubing) through it. Leave about 3 feet of tubing outside the pumpkin.
- 3). Place a candle inside the pumpkin. Keep the candle settled and stable inside the carved floor of the pumpkin.
- 4). Using a funnel, pour a few grams of lycopodium powder in the tubing. Allow the powder to settle about halfway down the tubing, but don't let it get all the way to the pumpkin.
- 5). Light the candle inside the pumpkin and replace the lid on top. Announce that you are about to set the pumpkin ablaze, and warn those nearby that the pumpkin may explode from the force and heat of the flames.
- 6). Direct the end of the tubing inside the pumpkin to point directly at the candle flame. Using a short, concentrated breath of air, blow through the tube so that the flame ignites the powder. Stand back and keep others well away---fire and flames will burst through the front of the pumpkin.