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Pumpkin Carving Tips
How to Carve a Pumpkin
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Tip 1: Choosing a Pattern
Tip 2: Picking out your Pumpkin
Tip 3: Cleaning out the Pumpkin
Tip 4: Preparing the Pumpkin Seeds for Eating
Tip 5: Transferring the Pattern to your Pumpkin
Tip 6: Carving the Pumpkin
Tip 7: Fixing Mistakes
Tip 8: Preserving Carved Pumpkins
Tip 9: Photographing Carved Pumpkins
Tip 1: Choosing a Pattern
Tip 2: Picking out your Pumpkin
Tip 3: Cleaning out the Pumpkin
Tip 4: Preparing the Pumpkin Seeds for Eating
Tip 5: Transferring the Pattern to your Pumpkin
Tip 6: Carving the Pumpkin
Tip 7: Fixing Mistakes
Tip 8: Preserving Carved Pumpkins
Tip 9: Photographing Carved Pumpkins
I prefer to choose my design BEFORE I pick out my pumpkin.
Or, you could get your pumpkin first and then find a face to
match the shape. But if you have some ideas in mind, it makes
it much easier later to get the correct size and shape pumpkin.
You may have a pumpkin pattern you got free from the Internet or from a pumpkin carving kit, or maybe you are artistic enough to draw one freehand. Or, you could MAKE YOUR OWN pumpkin pattern based off a photograph. Start by searching the Internet for pumpkin carving photos, you will find loads. Or, you find a spooky picture of something you want to mimic, or even a photograph of a celebrity which you can turn it into a pattern. An excellent tutorial I came across on the web which explains exactly how to make a pumpkin from a photograph is from the Pumpkin Wizard himself, and is found here: http://www.carvingpumpkins.com/howto/pattern.html
Once you have your pattern, print it out at actual size you want it to be. You may have to have it print on two pages, and then you can tape the two pages together.
You may have a pumpkin pattern you got free from the Internet or from a pumpkin carving kit, or maybe you are artistic enough to draw one freehand. Or, you could MAKE YOUR OWN pumpkin pattern based off a photograph. Start by searching the Internet for pumpkin carving photos, you will find loads. Or, you find a spooky picture of something you want to mimic, or even a photograph of a celebrity which you can turn it into a pattern. An excellent tutorial I came across on the web which explains exactly how to make a pumpkin from a photograph is from the Pumpkin Wizard himself, and is found here: http://www.carvingpumpkins.com/howto/pattern.html
Once you have your pattern, print it out at actual size you want it to be. You may have to have it print on two pages, and then you can tape the two pages together.
Pumpkin
Carving Tip 2: Picking out your Pumpkin
First, look for the size and shape pumpkin that will match your design.
For example, if you are doing the scary villain from the
SCREAM movies, a tall pumpkin would look best. A jolly happy
pumpkin (like the one above) looks good on a nice fat pumpkin.
Next, make sure the pumpkin is a bright healthy orange and
there are no signs of mold. Also check that there are no
damage to the skin of the pumpkin, because a small nick will later
cause the pumpkin to rot. This is especially important if you pick up
your pumpkins in September or early October and expect them to last
until Halloween. A nice sturdy stem also helps and looks
good. It serves as a good handle for the top of the pumpkin.
Pumpkin Carving Tip 3:
Cleaning
out the Pumpkin
Spread out some newspapers on the table, and get the garbage can
nearby. Although you can cut a hole in the bottom the pumpkin, I still
prefer to cut the pumpkin in the traditional way, with the hole on the
top of the pumpkin around the stem. You will need a sharp
serrated knife for this purpose. Carefully insert the knife,
then cut a circle all around the stem.
When the circle is cut, insert a butter knife, or another sturdy tool (I use a letter opener) into the cut, and pry open the lid. The lid won't come off easily the first time because of all the pumpkin strings attaching the lid to the inside. Then, take the knife and slice off about a half inch of pumpkin skin from the lid of pumpkin to make it nice and clean.
Next you want to clean out the inside. The first step is to reach your hand inside and scoop out the seeds by cupping your hand and running it along the inside of wall of the pumpkin. Put these into a colander/strainer if you are saving them. This is simply the fastest and easiest way to remove the seeds and pumpkin "strings", although you do get your hands dirty!
Next, "scoop" out the rest of the insides by scraping the inside pumpkin walls with a metal spoon or ice cream scoop. Here's a good pumpkin carving tip: the very best tools to use are ones made for this purpose, which are sold in the Pumpkin Masters Carving Kit (a link to buy this from Amazon is on the left side of the screen). They are shorter so the handle doesn't get in the way. The idea is to remove the inside pumpkin skin, actually carving it away. There are two reasons for this: carving the skin away "cleans" it by leaving a smooth surface with no gooey pumpkin strings, and "thins" out the walls of the pumpkin, which looks best when illuminated. You want to carve away at the inside skin until it is only one inch thick in the front of the pumpkin where the design will be.
When the circle is cut, insert a butter knife, or another sturdy tool (I use a letter opener) into the cut, and pry open the lid. The lid won't come off easily the first time because of all the pumpkin strings attaching the lid to the inside. Then, take the knife and slice off about a half inch of pumpkin skin from the lid of pumpkin to make it nice and clean.
Next you want to clean out the inside. The first step is to reach your hand inside and scoop out the seeds by cupping your hand and running it along the inside of wall of the pumpkin. Put these into a colander/strainer if you are saving them. This is simply the fastest and easiest way to remove the seeds and pumpkin "strings", although you do get your hands dirty!
Next, "scoop" out the rest of the insides by scraping the inside pumpkin walls with a metal spoon or ice cream scoop. Here's a good pumpkin carving tip: the very best tools to use are ones made for this purpose, which are sold in the Pumpkin Masters Carving Kit (a link to buy this from Amazon is on the left side of the screen). They are shorter so the handle doesn't get in the way. The idea is to remove the inside pumpkin skin, actually carving it away. There are two reasons for this: carving the skin away "cleans" it by leaving a smooth surface with no gooey pumpkin strings, and "thins" out the walls of the pumpkin, which looks best when illuminated. You want to carve away at the inside skin until it is only one inch thick in the front of the pumpkin where the design will be.
Pumpkin Carving Tip 4:
Preparing
the Pumpkin Seeds for Eating
If you have no interest in saving the seeds to eat, feel free to skip
this section. But I absolutely LOVE warm pumpkin seeds from
the oven and devour them immediately. Rinse those seeds in
the colander really well under running tap water. Use your
hands and move the seeds around to detach any orange pumpkin guts from
sticking to them. This is most easily done by running the
pumpkin threads through your fingers and all the seeds will "pop" off.
Pick out any orange flesh you may see in the colander. When
they look nice and clean, transfer the seeds to a shallow wide dish of
warm water into which a few teaspoons of regular table salt has been
added, and let them soak for about 30 minutes. Then, drain
the seeds in a colander but do not rinse them. Spread them
out in a single layer on an ungreased cookie sheet. Salt them
well. Bake at 250 degrees F for 30 minutes, then move them
around with a spatula and try to flip them, and salt them again.
Put them back in the oven for another hour or so.
Keep checking, you want them to be really dry and crisp. All
signs of moisture should be gone. This sometimes takes up to 2 hours of
baking, but at that low of a temperature it is hard for them to burn.
Just don't forget about them! I do this step before
I start my carving, so that they are baking while I am working.
When they are done, they will taste crunchy, not chewy, when
you bite into them. Eat them warm, they are the best!
Pumpkin
Carving Tip 5: Transferring the Pumpkin
Pattern to Your Pumpkin
Many pumpkin carving kits come with a small poker tool to transfer the
pattern onto your pumpkin. The idea is to poke tiny holes, in
the outline of the pattern, onto your pumpkin. I find this to
be very time consuming. Also, it is sometimes hard to make
out more intricate patterns when you remove your paper pattern, unless
you poked the holes very very close together, which again, takes a ton
of time! Now here's a pumpkin carving tip I want to share:
I have found it so much easier to transfer the pattern to the
pumpkin using carbon paper. You can still find carbon paper
in office supply stores, usually by the typewriter supplies, but just
ask someone if you are having trouble finding it. Place the
carbon paper under the pattern, as shown below, then cut out the
pattern itself. Tape this pattern to the pumpkin.
You may have to fold the paper upon itself in some areas to
make it flush with the curved pumpkin surface. See the photos
below:
Next, using a pointed tool, trace the pattern. Important
pumpkin carving tip: YOU NEED TO PRESS HARD! As hard as you
can. This gets tough on your hands but I personally still
find it faster and easier than poking a bunch of holes. The
carbon paper doesn't transfer as easily on pumpkin skin than it does on
regular paper. You can use a ball point pen for tracing, or
like myself, I used a stylus from my PDA which worked well.
When you are finished, remove the pattern. You will see your
pattern transferred, although it may be very light. I like to
go over it then with a washable marker or ball point pen.
It really, really helps to invest in some pumpkin carving tools. You will use them year after year. They are so easy to use, and relatively inexpensive. Even for simple carvings they make the job much easier with nice clean cuts. I recommend the Pumpkin Masters Carving Kit, (a link to buy this from Amazon is above on the left side of the screen), which include little saws for carving. The saws are easily inserted along one of your pattern lines, and then you "saw" back and forth with the little blade to make the cuts. If you have these little saws, even intricate pumpkin patterns are easy to carve.
To carve little holes, which commonly occur in the character's eyes, a drill comes in handy. Just have a paper towel or tissue ready to soak up some of the juice that will spill out.
Another important pumpkin carving tip: Start carving the tiny sections first. It is important to look at the pattern and figure out what areas will not be supported well by the surrounding pumpkin skin, because these need to be carved out first. As a general rule, you want to carve out the features in the middle of the pumpkin first and then work your way out. Begin by carving out the small tiny features, and leave the large features for last.
To remove the cut pumpkin pieces, gently push them out with your thumb so the piece falls inside the pumpkin. If the piece is too tiny for your thumb, find another tool. I find my letter opener works good as a tool in this case too, since it has a pointed, but blunt end. Q-tips, pencils, or toothpicks may also come in handy. If a piece doesn't want to give, don't "over push". Instead, take your saw and cut around the outline again, to make sure everything is a clean cut. Then gently try again. For large pieces, or pieces with a lot of angles, it is best to remove sections at a time to minimize stress on the pumpkin. See the photo below as an example. The mouth was a large piece to remove so I cut it into sections and removed each one at a time.
A technique you may see on some pumpkin patterns is carving away the orange pumpkin skin, but leaving the light orange flesh behind (not carving all the way through). This gives an amazing 3D effect when the pumpkin is illuminated. It is a technique used if you make a pumpkin pattern from a photograph, the method I mentioned earlier. To do this, I found the best tool to use is a scalpel or Exacto knife. If not, a small sharp paring knife works too. Outline the shape to be "shaved off" with the blade, digging into the pumpkin flesh about 1 mM to 2 mM. Once you cut out the outline, insert your blade parallel to the pumpkin to cut off, or "scoop out" the layer of skin. Work slowly here. The effect is beautiful.
If you accidently saw off a tooth of the pumpkin face, or a delicate part that didn't have much support breaks off, you can try to re-insert the pumpkin piece using a toothpick or pin. Just pierce the bottom of the pumpkin piece with a toothpick and pierce the other end of the toothpick through the pumpkin where the piece goes, letting the toothpick be the support.
Pumpkin Carving
Tip 8:
Preserving
Carved Pumpkins
Unfortunately, your pumpkin won't last forever, unless you bought one of those fake carvable pumpkins. But there are a few things you can do to help them last a week or so. First, when the pumpkin is done, rinse it out well, on the inside and the outside. The water will clean it off and get it nice and wet. Then blot the excess water with a paper towel. Keeping the pumpkin moist is key, because shriveling and drying up will cause the design to distort. A daily spritz of water from a spray bottle will help.
Store your pumpkin in the refrigerator if you have the room, when it is not lit. Or, store it in your garage it is cold out. Wrapping it in plastic wrap can also help retain moisture. I do not recommend leaving your carved pumpkins outside when they are not in use, animals love them. I've witnessed a squirrel eating up the cheek of one of my jack-o-lanterns! The pumpkins may also may attract bugs, especially those nasty cockroaches if you live down where its warmer.
Another technique is to soak the pumpkins in a bucket of water daily or once every two days to keep it hydrated. Completely submerge the pumpkin if you have a vessel big enough, and let it soak for awhile. This can also help revive a shriveled pumpkin design, in some instances.
Coating the entire inside of the pumpkin with petroleum jelly will also help retain moisture. Wear rubber gloves to apply, as this stuff is extremely messy and hard to remove from your hards. Apply this to all the cuts you made too. For the tiny openings you can use a Q-tip to apply the jelly.
If you do want something that lasts forever, the fake carvable pumpkins do work well. I tried one for the first time last season, and carved my daughter's faces in it (I have a picture of the finished product in the pumpkin photo gallery, see below if you are interested). The material is a bit harder to carve through for intricate designs, but this is actually better in the long run because it will hold up well. Keep in mind you will have to also purschase a pumpkin light to illuminate it since you cannot use a candle.
Now that you went through all that work you will want a good photograph of your jack-o-lantern. Try to take your photograph right away, when it is freshly carved. This is when they look their absolute best.
Another pumpkin carving tip is to always illuminate the pumpkin with a white votive candle. The color white is actually the brightest candle light for the pumpkin and will give the best results. Place the pumpkin in a dark room. Use a tri-pod, if you have one. If not, place your camera on a table or another stable surface. Manually turn the flash OFF.... you do not want to use a flash. Using a higher speed film will also help. Take the photo. If you have to hold the camera, remain as still as possible since the camera will be taking a long exposure to try to take in as much light as possible.
Have fun carving! I hope you have found these pumpkin carving tips helpful!
Did You Carve a Pumpkin this Year? We would LOVE to see Your Photos!
Would you mind uploading your pumpkin carving photo? We would love to see the pumpkins you carved this year!
YOUR Pumpkins are Here!
Click below to see the pumpkins from other visitors to this page...
Fierce Skeleton Face Pumpkin A scary looking skeleton face
Madison and Paige Pumpkin These are the faces of my two daughters, Paige and Madison. This was carved on one of those fake pumpkins, so I can keep it year after year.
Mars Attacks Pumpkin An alien from the movie "Mars Attacks"
Kiss Pumpkin Rock and Roll pumpkin!
Freddy Krueger Pumpkin
Always thought "The Nightmare on Elm Street" was so scary so I thought I would carve Freddy on a pumpkin. Here's how it came out.
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