Pumpkin Carving - A Personal History

I'm having a hard time getting pumpkin carving out of my head. So until it's time to actually, you know, do it, I guess I'm just going to be babbling about it here. :P So I guess I present A Personal History of Pumpkin Carving


There was apparently a time during our family history in which normal faces were carved. I was too young to remember, but there is a really old video of both me and the next youngest going trick-or-treating at a very young age. And visible in the background are our normal pumpkins.

My earliest pumpkin themed memory is visiting the pumpkin patch in kindergarten. We were allowed to pick one out to take home and everything. While my classmates picked out small, easily carried by a 5 year old pumpkins, I picked the biggest, bestest pumpkin I could find. I could barely lift the thing if I remember correctly. I was very lucky that the bus we rode to the patch was also the same bus that I rode to and from school on. The bus driver was nice enough to let me leave the pumpkin in my seat so I didn't have to take it back into the school building. I was very proud of that pumpkin.

We've carved interesting things for as long as I can remember. We started with those Pumpkin Masters kits that come with carving saws and patterns. I remember when we were little that we'd transfer the patterns to the pumpkins by coloring on the back with a crayon and then tracing it. Back then I'm pretty sure that Dad would help us with the carving - as I've said before, it's totally a family thing.

We used patterns from those kits for years. I think I had progressed to carving all by myself well before we mostly stopped using them. Somewhere we've got a picture of one of the ones I had done that was a skeleton eating a mouse. I still have a fondness for them even if we don't really use their patterns anymore, and sometimes I miss sawing away with those little saws as I haven't cut through a pumpkin in years.

At some point we started looking up patterns on the internet. We collected loads of free patterns over the years, and I definitely remember searching for new ones mid summer even. I'd say internet patterns were our first true trip into what I think of as "three color" patterns - Not cut through, shaved, and cut through, which eventually morphed into Not cut, shaved, and shaved deeper. We had favorite sites and I think this is when I really started loving patterns based on cartoon characters.

I was most definitely carving my own by this point. There's this one year where I was attempting to carve a rather complicated Harry Potter pattern. I was frustrated and taking it out on the rest of the family. Eventually I ended up hiding in the basement with my pumpkin, working through it someplace quiet so I could concentrate. This had to be in the early 2000s as the pattern was based off of one of the US book covers - OotP I believe.

In there we also tried making our own patterns even though we rarely carved anything we made. I've looked through some of my old attempts at making patterns recently. They're...pretty bad. They'd get the point across probably, but they were certainly far from what I'd consider even a decent job now.

And then at some point our favorite site (that we had come to rely on) took down a bunch of their patterns (cartoon based mostly) because of complaints from the people who, you know, actually owned the characters or something like that. Whatever...lol I think this is when my sister decided to start really making her own. She's got a real knack for it, and was nice enough to take requests from the rest of us. I tried myself, but I wasn't as good as she was, so I didn't try very hard...lol Heck, even my pumpkin from 2008 was from one of her patterns I think.

I make them for myself now of course. It's really only been the last few years that I've been consistently carving my own though. I'm still learning the balance between too much detail and not enough. If you leave your lines too thin, for instance, you're not going to be able to carve it easily. But too thick makes things, people especially, look weird. :P

I feel as if I ought to conclude this somehow, though I'm not sure what to say. Umm, pumpkins rock? Haha :P

Tis Fall!

Crunchy leaves, pretty colors, cool nights, and pumpkin guts. I adore this time of year more than any other.

We've bought our pumpkins before the last minute this year. I can't wait to get carving, but unfortunately starting too early means nasty rot before getting to showcase the fun next Monday. My pattern is all set - I'm carving Aladdin and Jasmine this year. My favorites from past years have always been the crazy detailed ones, unfortunate for time but understandable. Why wouldn't I be proudest of the crazy ones? :P

My pumpkins from the last three years, in order:





Patrick was three years ago, and I only sort of remember carving him. Perry is my absolute favorite out the the three even if I didn't get to display him for Trick-or-Treat, and Norm is totally awesome as well. Perry definitely fits the bill for "crazy details", but Norm's got it going on as well. Love love love carving.

In other time of year news, NaNo is coming up once again. This will be my third year and I'm starting to get a tiny bit excited again. I'm going for a lighter story than in past years (no more kidnapping and torture for instance) and hopefully the vague idea I have will deliver. :D