How to Carve a Fancy Pumpkin

With this technique, you remove the tough orange skin from some areas and carve out other sections completely to let the light from a candle or small flashlight shine through.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Votive Candles
• Paring Knives
• Peelers
• X-Acto Knives
• Pumpkins
• Spoons
• Votive Candleholders
• Pumpkin-carving Sets

1. Select a pumpkin with a smooth surface.

2. Draw a pattern on a separate piece of paper. Some suggestions are bats, skulls, spiders and ghosts.

3. Cut away the top section of the pumpkin surrounding the stem, and remove any seeds and pulp from inside.

4. Follow the pattern and draw the design on the pumpkin, thinking about which areas you'll cut out completely, and where you'll remove just the orange skin. Areas where the orange skin is left in place will appear darker than those where the skin is removed. In the case of a ghost, for example, you would completely carve out the eye holes and perhaps a mouth, but remove only the pumpkin's skin in the area of the ghost body.

5. Cut an outline around your design using a sharp knife.

6. Remove the areas that are to be completely cut.

7. Cut around any raised areas, such as folds of fabric or spider legs.

8. Slowly and carefully remove the orange skin from the desired areas with a vegetable peeler, an X-Acto knife or a dedicated pumpkin carving tool. Take your time, as this is the hard part. Variations in depth will create a more interesting design.

9. Place a votive candle or battery-powered light inside the pumpkin to create an eerie glow.

Tips & Warnings

• Have a selection of tools on hand: sharp paring knives, an art knife, vegetable peelers, or best of all, a dedicated pumpkin-carving kit.
• A slip of the knife can sometimes be mended by pinning the skin back in place with a toothpick.
• Try cutting off the bottom of the pumpkin and removing the insides from this end, especially if the pumpkin is lopsided or the stem is very small.
• Be extremely careful. Carving tools are sharp.
• Be especially careful with candles near small children.

Resources

• Halloween Pumpkin Carving Templates

[pumpkincarver]

on 3/14/2009 For the safest and easiest way to carve the skin of a pumpkin check out pumpkinsurfacercarver.com

on 11/22/2005 To transfer your patern to th pumpkin tape it on and use a toothpick to poke little holes along the lines. keep them very small so they dont show when your done carving. After you have poked the holes along your patern, remove the patern and rub flower over the area. The flower gets in the little holes and makes it very easy to follow the lines.

on 11/22/2005 Spread petroleum jelly anywhere you remove skinn or cut into th pumpkin. This will keep your pumpkin rom drying out. if your pumpkin tries to shrivel soak it in cold water for a couple hours and it will perk up again.

on 11/22/2005 Use a dremel or rotary toll to carve the skin away. This makes it easy to get VERY detaled designs. I recomend puting a plasti bag over the dremel with a small hole cut for the bit. This keeps your tool from grtting pumpkin shavings all over it. Try several bits to see how each work. have fun and be carefull.

on 11/22/2005 A jigsaw with a thin blade can quickly carve some very elaborate designs.