the art of the pumpkin
nothing symbolises halloween more than the humble pumpkin
and Carving a terrifying creation for the big day is always
a lot of fun
we spoke to professional pumpkin carver Jamie Jones,
(aka The Pumpkin Freak!), to get some hints and tips on
making the perfect pumpkin
Hello Jamie and welcome to whippoorwill lane,
please could you tell us, where does pumpkin
carving came from?
The tradition of Jack O’Lantern carving dates back centuries and has a few possible origins in folklore, Will-o’-the-whisp for example, but the predominant story behind it comes from the Irish folk tale of Stingy Jack, a trickster who was banished to roam in purgatory after he wasn’t allowed into heaven for this sinful life, nor hell after he tricked the devil – he was given a glowing ember to light his way as he wondered the world for eternity, he carved out a turnip to make a lantern to hold the ember in, becoming Jack of the lantern.
Jack O’Lanterns were traditionally carved in turnips, swede, potato, and other root vegetables, primarily in Gaelic culture around the festival of Samhain (now Halloween), which marked the end of the harvest and the start of the darker nights when its believed spirits roamed the earth, people carved them with scary faces to ward off these spirits.
Irish immigrants then took this tradition to America, where the Jack O’Lantern found a new medium in the form of Pumpkins!
where did your love of pumpkin carving come from?
About 10 years ago I had a Halloween party, I thought it would be a good idea to have some pumpkin for people to carve and have a bit of a carving competition between my friends, I started carving, after a few hours I realised everyone else had finished and I was sat on my own carving, having not spoke to anyone for hours! …its then I realised how much I enjoyed it.
Each year I carved more and more pumpkins, after a few years people started asking me to carve pumpkins for their parties, business etc and in 2019 i launched PumpkinFreak.
What should you look for when choosing a pumpkin to carve?
A long stem – the longer the stem, the longer the pumpkin will last – unfortunately supermarkets cut these very small, I avoid super market pumpkins when ever possible and instead use local farms.
Avoid ones with dark patches – pumpkins rot from the inside out, darker or softer patches are a sign the pumpkin is already rotting.
Look for a heavy pumpkin – if all the pumpkins are the same size, pick the heaviest one, this means the walls will be thicker, giving much more flesh to work with.
WhEN ARE PUMPKINS GROWN?
Pumpkins generally become available early to mid-September through to Halloween, although most shops only stock them in October.
What’s the best way to prepare a pumpkin for carving?
You don’t need to do much pre-carving, however, I never cut the stem off my pumpkins, I cut a hole in the bottom and hollow out from underneath, especially if you have a long stem that is still supplying nutrients to the pumpkin, removing it will make the pumpkin rot faster.
Once you have finished carving, washing it with water and bleach every few days will dramatically increase the shelf life of the Pumpkin.
SAFTEY TIP!
(BLEACH IS DANGEROUS SO ALWAYS GET AN ADULT TO HELP)
what tools do you need?
I use hand wood carving chisels, linoleum cutters, and ribbon cutters, which are used for clay sculpting.
I never use candles, I use LED lights inside my pumpkin (ensuring they are waterproof), camping lanterns or outdoor LED spot lights are ideal.
SAFETY TIP!!!
ALWAYS GET AN ADULT TO HELP YOU.
Can you tELL US about the different techniques that can be used in pumpkin carving
There are three types of pumpkin carving:
Cut out – this is the style people are most familiar with, it involves cutting straight through the pumpkin, removing blocks to make the design.
3D Sculpting – this involves carving the pumpkin to make a 3d sculpture, much the same way you would when carving a clay or wood.
Shading – this is the style I specialise in, this technique is closer to etching and involved shaving the pumpkin to different depths (rarely cutting all the way through), when light passes though you will get a wide range of shades allowing for a much more detailed design.
WHAT ARE THE HARDEST THINGS TO CARVE INTO A PUMPKIN?
Each Pumpkin will have its own set of challenges, but every year I try and push myself, and each year I improve. By far the hardest thing to carve on a pumpkin are words / letters, or generally any straight clean lines, this is due to the curvature of the pumpkin, to appear straight on a curved surface the lines will need to bend slightly
BEST TIP FOR BEGINNERS?
When you first start, learn how to make a good stencil. A big part of developing your pumpkin carving ability is the manual dexterity and learning which tools achieve the best cut for the desired effect, start with simple designs and build up to more complicated designs – Selecting a design with good contrast between light and dark areas will make life much easier for yourself.
If you are drawing the design yourself, sketch it out on paper first then stencil the design on, here’s a link to a step by step article I published on bored panda:
https://www.boredpanda.com/halloween-how-to-carve-pumpkin-like-pro-pumpkinfreak/
my love of drawing has helped my pumpkin carving, a basic understanding of how light interacts with the panes of a 3D objects to crate tonal value is extremely useful, here’s a YouTube video explaining Lambers law of emission, understanding this is key to pumpkin shading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vapw6n6FyU
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME JAMIE, WHERE CAN PEOPLE GO TO GET MORE TIPS AND FIND OUT MORE ABOUT YOUR WORK?
The Pumpkin carving group on Facebook (run by Stoneykins.com) is a great community of pumpkin carvers from around the world, myself and hundreds of experienced carvers are always on hand to offer advice to new carvers.
I also publish tutorials to my YouTube channel and facebook page every October:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKmFObLSYMu90OFCe6kZoJg
