Carving pumpkins is a tradition originating from the carving of jack o'lanterns from turnips and beets in the British Isles that dates back to at least the early 1800's.Pumpkins are an American plant and were much more convenient for carving than the turnip. Irish immigrants are believed to be the first to actually carve the pumpkin in the U.S.. The term "jack o'lantern" itself dates back to the 1600's; another name for will o'the wisps, those odd atmospheric lights seen flickering at a distance over boggy areas.
Today we're just going to share some carving tips, design ideas, and how to make your pumpkin last longer...
There are a lot of squash-y (and non-suqash-y) things that you can carve for Halloween, from the original turnip to one of many squash type plants, like pumpkins!
The first step in pumpkin carving is, of course, choosing the right pumpkin. It can be an arduous search, I recommend diving right in!
There are a lot of choices in getting your pumpkins: you can grow your own, you can go to a farm that lets you pick your own from the field, a farm / farm market, your local grocery store, and even many hardware stores.
< Sometimes odd-shaped pumpkins can really bring out your creativity or enhance your design! >
Now that you have your pumpkin it is time to get out your tools!
Tools for carving pumpkins can be very simple, a paring knife from your kitchen, to complex, such as a Dremel tool (including carving templates). You probably have many tools around the house that would be good for carving and give very cool effects: paring knives, vegetable peeler, melon ball cutter, drill, screwdriver, thin hacksaw blade, clay artist tools, wood carving tools, stamp carvers, exact-o knife, etc.
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| Pumpkin cutters! |
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| A few scrapers for cleaning the pumpkins |
Several companies make specialty pumpkin cutting kits, like Dremel, Pumpkin Masters, FunWorld, and you can even get carving tools off of Amazon.com ... (most of the companies also have design ideas and templates on their web sites). I do have a bit of a problem with some of the smallest blades from these kits, they are so narrow, and not reinforced, that the repeated stress from carving pumpkins will cause them to snap off just above the handle.
So, be careful!
My primary advice on carving pumpkins is : JUMP RIGHT IN! and try out whatever tool you think might work.
There are a lot of sites that discuss details of carving pumpkins and give design templates (Dremel and Pumpkin Masters both do) that you can stipple or trace on, so I'm not going to do that, but I am going to post some tips on pumpkin carving & care and some images that might give you some ideas!
CARE & CARVING TIPS:
> Wash the pumpkins with antibacterial soap before carving to reduce mold.
> To lengthen your pumpkins life keep it well hydrated by soaking it in cold water with just a touch of bleach (~1 Tablespoon of bleach per quart of water) if it starts to look wilted for about an hour, or spritz it with bleach solution in a sprayer.
> Cutting the bottom (out of) instead of the top (off of) the pumpkin will help to keep the pumpkin hydrated.
> After your pumpkin is cut rubbing a bit of Vaseline on the cut edges will also help to retain moisture.
> After cleaning out the pumpkin scrape the meat thin where you want mostly pumpkin skin and cut the pumpkin skin off with a short sturdy blade where you want the glow through the pumpkin meat.
> I almost always hold the pumpkin in my lap while I work.
> Cut the central /small detailed bits first and the outer /large chunks last where ever you can, this helps to keep the pumpkin from weakening too much while you work.
> Remember to use the tool you have in your hand appropriately (e.g. if it has a saw type blade it is a saw, so you should use a gentle sawing motion with it!)
> Toothpicks work great for fixing that bit that snapped off. Just remember to keep the toothpick straight as you push it in!
Unfortunately, due to a computer disaster about a year ago I do not have all of my pumpkin pics, and some of our old ones will have to be re-scanned. So, I will share here what images I currently have at hand and will post more as we carve new pumpkins and/or find old pics!
The bat's wing effect is just the skin of the pumpkin with all of the meat of the pumpkin scraped off of the back, giving it a shear look.
"The process" for two of this year's pumpkins...
These were both scraped very thin. The smaller one is a pie pumpkin; the meat will be used to make pumpkin butter and the seeds will be roasted .
I like making double sided pumpkins, with the back side able to throw a silhouette against a wall. The back side I carved into pumpkin above, a simple bat, is an easy silhouette.
...and some carved by local high-schooler's at the gazebo downtown...
DeWyk
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