Meat Skull Centerpiece

Make a horrific-yet-delicious Meat Skull Centerpiece for your next Halloween party! The MONSTER M4SK is our all-in-one, dual-display animated eyeball animation kit that you can easily use to bring this tasty decapitated head to life! The lenses and lens holders make those peepers really pop from their fleshy sockets.

Inspired by this recipe from the Today Show, we decided to up the creepy quotient a bit! Add MONSTER M4SK eyes and sliced prosciutto, capocollo, mortadella, and salami to a plastic-wrap covered foam skull to make a spooky/yummy three dimensional serving platter! Will your house guests be bold enough to peel off a slice of flesh to go with their crackers and beverages?

Parts

MONSTER M4SK DIY Electronic Face mask. Two Screens Display Eyes that blink and dart up and down.

Adafruit MONSTER M4SK - DIY Electronic Eyes Mask

Peep dis! Have you always wanted to have another pair of eyes on the back of your head? Or outfit your costume with big beautiful orbs? The MONSTER M4SK

$44.95

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Assembled Monster M4SK with lenses installed and eyes moving around

Clear Acrylics and Hardware Kit for Monster M4sk

Here is the perfect kit for mounting convex lenses (glass or plastic) to your

$3.50

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Angled shot of black box. "ADABOX" in googly eyes.

AdaBox013 - THE MONSTER M4SK

I was hacking in the lab quite late one night - soldering pins and debugging the bytesWhen suddenly a bang exploded with sparks, and a figure emerged from the hazy dark!

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Convex Plastic Lens with Edge

The eyes have it! Add this little lens to make a big expression with our Spooky Eyes demo for microcontrollers or Raspberry Pi. These are plastic lenses, with brilliant clarity and a...

$3.95

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Lithium Ion Polymer Battery 3.7v 420mAh with JST 2-PH connector and short cable

Lithium Ion Polymer Battery with Short Cable - 3.7V 420mAh

Lithium-ion polymer (also known as 'lipo' or 'lipoly') batteries are thin, light, and powerful. The output ranges from 4.2V when completely charged to 3.7V. This...

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Tools, Materials & Supplies

In addition to the parts listed above, you'll also need:

Decorative prop skull -- preferably made of styrofoam, such as this one
Serving platter
Two 3oz. packages of sliced prosciutto
One 3oz. package each of capocollo, mortadella, and Calabrese salami (OK you can use any sliced meats you like, it's your party!)
Plastic cling wrap
Toothpicks
Crackers

Optional: Brain Jell-O mold and red Jell-O

Our first step is to prepare the prop skull by making it food safe. The prop skull is most definitely not a food safe surface. We'll do this by covering it with plastic cling wrap.

Plastic Wrap

Wrap the skull in a layer of cling wrap.

Use a knife or scissors to cut out the teeth and nose area, since those won't have any meat on them.

If you have a foam skull you can use toothpicks to conform the wrap to the surface curvature a bit more. This will help preserve the skull bone definition when we lay the meat slices on it.

M4SK/Eyes Setup

Next, set up your MONSTER M4SK to have creepy eyes! Follow the main guide quickstart instructions to get the M4_Eyes.UF2 running.

I created some cherry tomato style eyes by adjusting some settings for the demon eyes that come with the eye graphics download.

Here is the adjusted config.eye file I created:

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{
  "eyeRadius"       : 125,
  "irisRadius"      : 40,
  "eyelidIndex"     : "0x00", // From table: learn.adafruit.com/assets/61921
  "pupilColor"      : [ 0, 0, 0 ],
  "pupilMin"        : 0.05,
  "pupilMax"        : 0.25,
  "backColor"       : [ 80, 0, 0 ],
  // From www.deviantart.com/suicidecrew/art/Fire-Seamless-tile-116721709
  "irisTexture"     : "demon/iris.bmp",
  "scleraTexture"   : "demon/sclera.bmp",
  "tracking"        : false,
  "left" : {
  },
  "right" : {
  }
}

{
  "eyeRadius"       : 125,
  "irisRadius"      : 40,
  "eyelidIndex"     : "0x00", // From table: learn.adafruit.com/assets/61921
  "pupilColor"      : [ 0, 0, 0 ],
  "pupilMin"        : 0.05,
  "pupilMax"        : 0.25,
  "backColor"       : [ 80, 0, 0 ],
  // From www.deviantart.com/suicidecrew/art/Fire-Seamless-tile-116721709
  "irisTexture"     : "demon/iris.bmp",
  "scleraTexture"   : "demon/sclera.bmp",
  "tracking"        : false,
  "left" : {
  },
  "right" : {
  }
}

With the demon directory copied to your M4SK, save the config.eye file with those settings to the root directory of the board.

Add the battery, lenses, lens holders, and elastic headband + tri-glides (or other method for securing them) as shown here, and slip the goggles onto the skull.

Eyes Protection

You can now add a strip of cling wrap to protect the M4SK and headband from the meats. Just cut out a couple of holes for the lenses to poke through, and make a small slit for the USB plug for charging later.

The skull is ready for meat application!

Meating the Skull

I found it best to start with a layer of prosciutto to lay the foundation. Don't be afraid to tear it into strips to fit the direction of the muscle flow of the skull.

You can then start to build up the appearance by using the other meats as contrasting colors and shapes.

As you encircle the eye lenses be sure to leave a small gap for inserting the USB cable into the MONSTER M4SK as well as accessing the on/off switch.

You can layer up as many slices as you want, and when you're ready to present your centerpiece, be sure to add some crackers!

You Meat Skull Centerpiece is ready to entertain (and freak out) your guests. For enhanced effect, turn the lights down low and add a bit of dry ice to the tray.

Buon appetito!

Here's a fun add-on project for when your guests tire of sliced, preserved meats -- the Jell-O Brain Skull!

For this, we'll use a readily available "Zombie Brain Jell-O mold".

Make a Brain

Mix up a batch of gelatin, as per the instructions on the box. Red flavors work quite well! It's a good idea to mix it in a bowl and stirring well before pouring it into the mold.

Spray some non-stick vegetable oil spray into the mold to act a a mold release before pouring in the gelatin mixture.

Let it set up in the refrigerator, at least 4 hours.

Saw the Skull Cap

Mark a line around the top of the skull where you want to remove it. This is the flat spot on which the Jell-O will sit.

Use a thin bladed hand saw or bread knife to cut along the line.

Brain Transfer

Place the skull on top of the Jell-O mold.

Carefully turn the entire assembly upside down to release the brain onto the skull.

Place your MONSTER M4SK into the skull's eye sockets (you can secure it with tape or toothpicks through the mounting holes if you like) and your delicious dessert is ready for spooning into small bowls and eating!

Please note, the bottom layer should be avoided so nobody eats styrofoam. If you want to be extra careful, cut out a paper plate by tracing the skull cap and place it under the Jell-O.