Instruction on How to
Carve a Pumpkin in 5 Easy Steps
Learn how to carve a
pumpkin for that special country
Halloween.
Carving Halloween pumpkins is an old tradition that is easy to learn
how to do.
Just follow our step-by-step instructions.
October wouldn't be October if we
ignored Halloween altogether. It was never part of my childhood growing
up, but my kids used to enjoy dressing up and going "trick or treating"
when they were small, and we still light the candle in the ceramic
pumpkin every year and place it on the garden wall.
If you are celebrating Halloween and
haven't carved a Halloween pumpkin before, now is the time to learn. It
is fairly
straight forward, and if you want to get a little fancy one can now buy
stencils for some beautiful Halloween pumpkin carving.
HOW TO CARVE A PUMPKIN and Step 1 in Choosing your
Pumpkin
Pumpkin Carving is your next step
closer to creating your perfect Country Halloween. Pumpkins come in all
shapes and sizes and the one that you choose for your carving will
depend on the shape and size of your design. So know what you are going
to carve, and then buy your pumpkin accordingly. Get your pumpkin home
and clean it with a damp cloth.
HOW TO CARVE A PUMPKIN and Step
2 in How to Scoop Out the Flesh
For those of you who want to leave the
top of the pumpkin intact along with the stem, then you will have to
make an opening at the back of the pumpkin instead where you will scoop
out the flesh. However, if you want to take the top off, slice off just
a small amount with the stem and scoop out the seeds and fibrous
material going in from the top, using a serrated spoon or an ice cream
scoop. Take enough flesh away so that you have about a one inch depth
of the flesh to work with.
HOW TO CARVE A PUMPKIN and Step 3 in How to Flatten
the Bottom
Once it is clean and free of seeds,
make sure that you have a flattened area at the bottom of the pumpkin
inside where you can place your candle. This can easily be done by
scraping out the middle in a way that ensures a flat surface for the
candle to rest on.
HOW TO CARVE A PUMPKIN and Step 4 in How to Sketch your Design
Now take a marker and start sketching
your design. If you prefer, you can sketch the design on paper, and
then tape the sketch to the pumpkin.
HOW TO CARVE A PUMPKIN and Step 5 in Starting your
Pumpkin Carving
Now take a metal skewer and trace your
pattern by making holes with the skewer along the drawn outlines. Once
you have the dotted outline in place you can then start carving it out
with a sharp knife.
For those of you who have done Halloween pumpkin carving year
after year and feel that it is 'old hat', try something more
sophisticated; the shading technique.
Learning how to carve a pumpkin using
shading for pumpkin carving is a very different technique. Shading is
when you don't just
cut
holes in the pumpkin but you also strip some of the skin away revealing
the flesh, and other parts of the pumpkin you leave natural. By
employing this technique you can make some spectacular pumpkins.
The tools you will need for shading are
your common old kitchen knives and also some small chisels and pottery
tools for peeling the pumpkin skin away. However, if you don't have
these at
hand, use a screwdriver, this works just as well.
When you peel the pumpkin you
want to get the effect of this with the correct lighting, so whatever
you peel should be to a depth of a half inch. Those parts that are cut
away completely will give you your candlelight shining through, the
peeled areas will give you an opaque effect and the natural skin left
behind will be your dark shadows.
Have a look at the pictures below.
Hopefully they will give you some inspiration for your next Halloween
pumpkin
carving project, and perhaps you can show someone else how to carve a
pumpkin!
Pumpkin Carving Ideas
Pumpkin Carving
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