are disgusting. Which is one of the reasons I decided to carve foam pumpkins this year. That, and this way all my effort won't be wasted because foam doesn't rot.
Sooo, I made a photographic how-to guide for carving pumpkins because I was feeling very...I don't know, pumkpin-y.
Welcome to "Holiday Fun with Ireland"!!!
No. Stop that.
Sorry.
Anyway, first you'll need pumpkins. In case you didn't know that. You can get artificial ones from art supply stores like A.C. Moore or Michaels or
online. You can get real ones growing off of a vine.
You'll need some type of carving tool like a kitchen knife. Or, if you want to get professional, a dremel tool. If your dad or boyfriend or husband or whatever has one, awesome. If not, they are pretty expensive to get just for pumpkin carving...
I bought these little stabby knife things for artificial pumpkin-carving for a few dollars. (Just being Captain Obvious here, but if you are using real pumpkins, get the ones for real pumpkins.)
As for the actual design you want to do...carving templates are the best way to go. They make it easier and they look way cooler when they are done than those stupid jack o' lantern faces every 5-year-old makes.
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| Thank you, internet, for this monstrosity. |
The templates I used I found on
PinkRayGun.com. (they have a bunch of awesome ones. Just search "pumpkin" and you'll find everything from Harry Potter to Steve Jobs) But you can just Google it and find basically anything.
These are the two I used:
Once you find what you want, print it out in a simple two-color form. Make sure you know which part to cut out (for instance, I was supposed to cut out the gray portions). It should be about full-page size.
Then you just tape that thing right on the pumpkin however you want it. Or course, paper isn't exactly rounded so you'll have some bulges and folds in the paper. You can work around it (and trimming the paper fairly close to the actual design helps, too).
Then take a knife or your carve-y thing or a toothpick or a narwhal horn and poke holes into the pumpkin along the outlines of the design.
Once you take the paper off, all the dots look pretty random.
So, using the printouts as a guide, go back and connect the dots to make it easier to follow when you start carving.
Now it's finally time to actually
carve the pumpkins. Woot.
Just going by the way it was with foam, you're going to have to really shove the carving tool into the pumpkin hard to make it go all the way through at the start of each new line. Otherwise it's pretty easy to saw out the design.
It works best if you sit somewhere and hold the pumpkin in your lap while you're working. You want to work and a 90 degree angle with it to get the best leverage. The tool I used actually handles curves pretty well (like with the circle on the Hunger Games template (aka the bird design)) but with sharp corners you should take the tool out, turn it to the new direction, and start at the corner to continue.
Beware: foam pumpkins are very messy when cut. Those little pieces are all over my front porch and in the garden now. And they stick to your clothes like crazy.
And try to stay away from detailed designs with small cutouts (like the Doctor Who one). You will get OCD trying to cut that out without messing it up. I almost had a nervous breakdown.
Of course, if you try a challenging one and you do it well, you feel like a freakin' pumpkin-carving MASTER. Which is what I am.
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I even kept the cutout pieces from my Hunger Games pumpkin and they look awesome just on their own. |
Sanding the edges of your pumpkin is a good idea, too.
Now all that's left for me to do is buy lights for these masterpieces. I can't use a candle or even electricity for these artificial pumpkins because they will catch on fire...so I'm going searching for small battery-powered LEDs this weekend.
Still, I recommend using foam pumpkins because you don't want to spend so much effort carving an amazing pumpkin only to see it shrivel away in a few days. I'm going to keep these and use them every year.
Although; I just found
this that apparently can make your pumpkins last longer. Like for two weeks, anyway. Still, I like foam. IT NEVER DIES. Unless you step on it.
_______________________________
In other news, I've been extremely busy working on art projects and stuff since classes started.
For my design class I have four projects due every two weeks. It's intense.
I've basically taken over the dining room table because my room is tiny and I don't have a desk.
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| No art station is complete without Monster. |
So I've been doing a lot of staying up late.
And, I've got a job now (I know...GASP). I work twelve hour shifts on weekends, which means I have to wake up at 5am. Which means I never sleep in anymore. Like ever.
I think I'm putting my poor brain through hell. I wake up at 5 on weekends, 8 on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays, and 9 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
I stand up basically all day on weekends packing boxes and locating things on shelves. I work on art projects constantly. I "study" for Spanish intermittently. Any minuscule free time I have, I watch Doctor Who or anything with David Tennant in it.
What a sad life I lead.
Oh, and I made a paper Dalek.
You're welcome.
