Google Jelly Bean sculpture: Behind the scenes (pictures)

New Jersey prop-building company Themendous created this giant Google Android OS Jelly Bean sculpture to go on Google's lawn. The sculpture representing the next version of the Android OS contains 160 jelly beans, each hand-carved from Styrofoam and then covered in plastic resin and painted.

Google's front lawn features a collection of sculptures that embody the different dessert-themed Android OS names, including Gingerbread, Froyo, and Ice Cream Sandwich. A see-through Android-shaped jelly bean jar is the latest addition to the sculpture garden.

New Jersey company Themendous hand-carved 160 jelly beans out of Styrofoam for Google's latest Android-themed sculpture, which took its place on Google's lawn on the eve of the developer-oriented Google I/O show. This blurry behind-the-scenes photo shows the different paint jobs being applied to the beans. It took six minutes to carve each bean. "That's moving fast," says Giovanni Calabrese, owner of Themendous.

Themendous owner Giovanni Calabrese is the creative force behind the Google Android OS Jelly Bean sculpture. He is hands-on, as evidenced by these overalls. To coat each carved jelly bean with plastic resin, a suit and safety mask are required.

The Google Android OS Jelly Bean sculpture maker undertook the project during a heat wave in New Jersey. This machine let Themendous workers know just how hot it was during the process of applying plastic resin to each jelly bean.

Creating sculptures for Google's lawn can be grueling work. Giovanni Calabrese, owner of Themendous, takes a break during the production process in a New Jersey heat wave. The sculpture was created under wraps over the course of one week.

"We have to keep the project quiet," Calabrese says. "Google has to be the one to launch. They don't want to be scooped."

The Android OS Jelly Bean sculpture was put into place on Google's lawn as an official unveiling of the new operating system's name. An assembly line places 160 individual jelly beans into the Android mascot-shaped jar. It joins a collection of other large Android statues.

Themendous owner Giovanni Calabrese takes a family portrait with Jelly Bean and other Google sculptures his company created. Calabrese takes the secrecy of his projects very seriously, knowing that Google wants to be the one to officially unveil the latest Android OS name.

Google's Jelly Bean started life as massive blocks of Styrofoam. Whittling down all those jelly beans means a lot of leftovers. Themendous collects the leftovers and sends them back for recycling.