My Halloween Pumpkin-Finding and -Carving Adventures

Last year, I decided that I would start carving pumpkins for Halloween. I hadn't even had a carved pumpkin since I was much younger, but I thought it would be fun to try some of the interesting patterns of which I'd heard.

I saw carving pumpkins as a work of art, even if the carving was done from a pre-made pattern.

I went out and bought a set of pumpkin carving tools with a booklet showing different patterns that I could use. I pored over the book for days, looking at one pattern after another, trying to scope out the relative difficulty involved, and the coolness of the finished product.

I narrowed my selection down to three possibilities.

The first was a stack of pumpkins with faces, carved within a single pumpkin. I thought this design was appealing because this way I didn't necessarily have to choose just one face, I could carve a different face on each of the "pumpkins". However, carving any more intricate patterns on such a small scale would have been impossible, so I would almost have to go with the faces that were on the pattern itself. Plus, it would be difficult because this pattern required many small pieces to be cut out, and this would be my first time carving my own pumpkin.

I focused in on two other designs, one was a bat, which looked easy, and one was a winky smiley.

The Bat had several large pieces to cut out, the only tricky parts being the small eyes and mouth. The winky smiley was very easy, with mostly large chunks to cut out.

I took the patterns out of the book and set about finding pumpkins that would fit the patterns. I wanted large pumpkins with a relatively flat face.

My search took me to a Farmer's Market, which was primarily filled with Spanish-speaking immigrants selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Thankfully, the pumpkin merchant spoke English well and I was able to get two large pumpkins that were perfect for my project.

When I got them, it was around the middle of the month. My excitement built as I thought of how much fun it would be to carve them. I kept placing the patterns over the pumpkins to see where on the pumpkin I would want to carve them.