# The pumpkin carving thread...



## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Hi everyone, I'm new here, but absolutely LOVE Halloween. Its by far my favorite holiday. My real addiction is pumpkin carving. Hopefully there are others here that share this. If so, I'd love to see your work, whether you're a beginner or fairly skilled. 

Also, if you have questions, I'd be happy to field them.

To start things off, here's one of my pumpkins from last year, taken originally from an Anne Stokes print:











This took me around 8-10 hours to make the pattern (I can post this if interested) and another 12-13 to carve. It was done on a really cool pumpkin. The pumpkin weighed 44 pounds, but was lots taller than it was wide.

Let me know if you wanna see more. More to the point though, I'd LOVE to see your stuff!


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## frenchy (Dec 16, 2007)

Omg what a beauty this is some carving wow!
Last year i did my very first one ever and it wasn't to bad but nothing to conpare to yours . but i would love to see more of your work . And how you did them it certainly will help me a lot to improve mine . 

And Welcome to this forum


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## pandora (Jul 15, 2004)

sfam - OMG that is so incredible. You must have the patience of a saint. Every year I have grand illusions of taking my time and really working on a pumpkin. Then I rush through in 10 minutes and hack the poor thing up. That's really beautiful. Please post more!!


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

frenchy said:


> Omg what a beauty this is some carving wow!
> Last year i did my very first one ever and it wasn't to bad but nothing to conpare to yours . but i would love to see more of your work . And how you did them it certainly will help me a lot to improve mine .
> 
> And Welcome to this forum


Thanks for the complements! And I'd love to see your carving, regardless how it compares. 

I've been carving since about '97 or '98, and have definitely gotten better every year. Around 2003, I started making my own patterns. At this point, the vast majority of the pumpkins I do are either my own patterns or those from pumpkin carver/pattern makers who have carved my patterns and have cool patterns of their own.

So not surprisingly the short answer is the longer you do it, the better you get! That said, there's a thriving pumpkin carving community who usually congregate around August or so at discussion board on carvingpumpkins.com. This is a TERRIFIC place to get patterns and learn in detail from others on how to do everything from getting a pattern transferred to which tools to use, to carving fake pumpkins and so forth. One of the regulars there has this forum linked on their site - hence my stopping by here when I started pining for Halloween to come already. 

But, yeah, I'd love to show you more pumpkins. My most successful pattern in terms of others carving it is draco:










I've had around 15-20 others carve this (or more - this is all I've seen pictures for). I LOVE dragons, and am a big fan of Ciruelo Cabral's work. His Draco painting is one of my favs. I also did an "eastern" dragon on the same pumpkin to go with this, so I would have an "east vs west" thing going:


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

pandora said:


> sfam - OMG that is so incredible. You must have the patience of a saint. Every year I have grand illusions of taking my time and really working on a pumpkin. Then I rush through in 10 minutes and hack the poor thing up. That's really beautiful. Please post more!!


Thanks! And yeah, the carving for me is a very relaxing thing (at least until the pressures of getting done by "show time" start intruding). And I got bunches to show ya. 

I did four pumpkins last year on Sleeping Beauty. Here's Malificent on a fake pumpkin (I did her on a real one the year previous, and liked it so much I redid it on a Michael's pumpkin):












Here's her castle - my wife actually did this one - it was definitely her best work yet! (a guy in Ohio named Jamie did the pattern for this one):












Here's Sleeping Beauty:












Here's my centerpiece from last year on an 88 pound pumpkin - Maleficent as a dragon fighting Prince Phillip on the bridge:


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

I also absolutely LOVE vampires. Here's a couple of vamp pumpkins I've done:










Being a movie buff, I was under the mistaken impression that EVERYONE knew who Nosferatu was. Sadly enough, nobody in my neighborhood recognized this guy. Still, I thought I did a decent job.













This one went over better. This is from the cover of the game Vampire: The Masquerade.


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## bethene (Feb 12, 2007)

HolyMoly!!!! I can not believe how beautiful and detailed your pumpkins are!! Wow!! I have done some degining pumpkins, they turned out prettty good, for a beginner. I usually have so many thnigs going on that i don't take the time to get alot of pumpkins done, even though i love them. Again, Wow, fantasitc work!! Do you grow your own pumpkins, or buy them?


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## bethene (Feb 12, 2007)

the vampire ones are awesome too!


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

bethene said:


> HolyMoly!!!! I can not believe how beautiful and detailed your pumpkins are!! Wow!! I have done some degining pumpkins, they turned out prettty good, for a beginner. I usually have so many thnigs going on that i don't take the time to get alot of pumpkins done, even though i love them. Again, Wow, fantasitc work!! Do you grow your own pumpkins, or buy them?


Right now I just buy them. I get my large ones (70 pounds or above) near the end of September so I get them before the hotels and business snatch them up (they use them for their entrance way displays). But my mother recently got a place in the country with like 8 acres on it. Either this year or next I'm going to plant seeds and see how they do. 

Also, I usually already have a decent idea what I'm going to carve when looking for my pumpkins. Sometimes I need a nice flat "portrait" surface to do a large shot like the Maleficent Dragon above. Other times I'm looking for a round pumpkin - I need this for pumpkin "sculpting" efforts like doing the Star Wars Death Star (posted later). Other times I'm looking for a mid-sized pumpkin with two good "sides" to do two patterns on it, like the two dragons above, for instance. In general, smoother surfaces are usually better - this too is a factor. Most important though is to get one that's not rotted. This has been a real problem the last few years.


You guys here will probably appreciate this one more than most. This is the Lord Of Darkness from the Legend movie:











Unfortunately, the pumpkin wasn't the best to carve on, so I wasn't totally thrilled with his face, but I thought the rest of him turned out OK. I made the pattern from a bust I own:


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

bethene said:


> the vampire ones are awesome too!



Thanks again for the compliments!


Here's one of Luis Royo's Evolution statue:























Incidentally, the pumpkin committed suicide fight before the big show, but I was able to superglue her back into shape (yes, Superglue works AWESOME on pumpkin booboos...I even used it to put back together a 120 pound death star that spit in two!). But apparently, she really wanted to die, and killed herself for good midway through the big night. Here's a shot of her remains the day after Halloween:


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Here's another one if interested - a Star Wars Death Star sculpt on a 77 pound pumpkin:


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## Toetag (Jan 31, 2008)

Are those your patterns that you made?


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Toetag said:


> Are those your patterns that you made?


The ones I've posted are pictures. I can post the patterns as well. Although with the Death Star, there really isn't a pattern, as the pumpkin is the pattern (although I do have a tutorial on another site that I can post here if anyone is interested in carving this).

But for instance, here's a Cherry Darling pumpkin from the Taratino/Rodriguez movie, Grindhouse:












Here's the original image:












Here's the pattern I made of it, after much digital massaging:












Here's the "inverted" look that many use to actually tape on the pumpkin to trace or glue the pattern:











The black color on the "inverted" look means you cut-through all the way. The gray means you skin the pumpkin, and the white areas you leave alone. Incidentally the "perspective" difference you see between the carving and the pattern is due to the pumpkin's roundness. The picture will look different depending on where I take it.


EDIT: But if you mean are the pumpkins I'm showing based on patterns I've made versus making pumpkins from others, yes, all so far have been mine with the exception of the castle, which I mention above is from an excellent pumpkin carver named Jamie.


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

OMG!

I am an artist for a living, and I can't carve like that!

Awesome pumpkins!!!


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## Toetag (Jan 31, 2008)

SWEET! can you make any picture a pattern? Like if a enough members wanted the same pattern would you make a few patterns for us to use?


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Toetag said:


> SWEET! can you make any picture a pattern? Like if a enough members wanted the same pattern would you make a few patterns for us to use?


The short answer is "Yes, but...."

You can take any picture and posturize it into just three colors and use it for carving - assuming you don't leave any unconnected cut-throughs - but you really need decent contrast to make a picture work for a carving like that. Too often you get something that just won't work all that well.

That said, TONS of people on carvingpumpkins.com take just this approach. For my patterns though, I tend to spend a decent amount of time with them. Often I'm stuck with lots of grays that just won't work very well if I just went for three colors. So often I start off with 8-15 colors and slowly work my way down.

But yeah, if you want some patterns made, this should be easy enough. There are also TONS of patterns already made in the carving community. Unfortunately, with recent disney threats of lawsuits, now most people can't post them - instead they just email them to each other.


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Frankie's Girl said:


> OMG!
> 
> I am an artist for a living, and I can't carve like that!
> 
> Awesome pumpkins!!!


Wow, that's an awesome compliment - thanks! For that I'll post my masterpiece for you:

I did this one in 2006. It took me about 23 hours to make the pattern and another 11 1/2 hours to carve it. I carved it nonstop starting around 11:30 at night or so. In all I made only 2-3 minor mistakes (this is like almost impossible). In truth, most of it was the most awesome 77 pound pumpkin - it was pretty much like carving on butter. The dragon itself is like 27 inches wide and like 14 inches tall if I remember correctly. 































The detail in the face was insanely difficult to do. The original painting came from my favorite dragon artist, Ciruelo Cabral. This was his Dark Dsurion.


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## Toetag (Jan 31, 2008)

I use GIMP image editor any idea how to posturize a image? or what do you use id like to take a stab at this. Any info would be great


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## TheGothicPrincess (Sep 7, 2007)

I have a question, how long do your pumpkins last once they are carved? How do you keep them from rotting so soon?


I also wanted to jump in here and say awesome work... Keep the posts coming.


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## Dr. Z (Nov 22, 2007)

WOAW! Awesome job Sfam! Teach me!
What kind of tools do you use for carving? Actually I bought this pumpkin carving kit with a pattern book, I guess I was 10/12 years old:










You'll probably find it very basic but when I bought it I felt like I found the Holy Graal!
Unfortunately I never found it again anywhere (you cannot imagine how difficult it is to purchase Halloween stuff in France!) and my tools are now half broken, half lost


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

TheGothicPrincess said:


> I have a question, how long do your pumpkins last once they are carved? How do you keep them from rotting so soon?
> 
> 
> I also wanted to jump in here and say awesome work... Keep the posts coming.


This question really depends on your climate. If you are down south, you obviously have a harder problem. I'm in the Northern VA area. Usually the tempurature stays around the 50s or so (give or take changes), but some days it certainly spikes. The first 6 pumpkins or so I do go in our secondary refrigerator. If the temperature is decent, I put the rest which are carved in the last week or so in my garage. I generally spread the carved area with patroleum jelly and then cover it with saran wrap. I will spray the inside with lysol to stop any fungus growth. If its hot outside, every day or so I'll spray water on the carved area (and sometimes the inside) to keep it from drying out. But usually this lasts well enough.

A fellow carver in Texas uses her bathtub and her mom's to store all her pumpkins as the day approaches. She just fills the tub with water.

But also, pumpkin selection is CRITICAL. Especially the last few years, most of the pumpkins have had issues due to the various droughts and infections.

EDIT: and thanks for the compliment!

Here's a carving of the game cover for Diablo II for you, although I used Brom's original painting vice the game cover to make most of the skeleton pattern:


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Toetag said:


> I use GIMP image editor any idea how to posturize a image? or what do you use id like to take a stab at this. Any info would be great


There are bunches of threads on carvingpumpkins.com that go through this in detail - I'll find some of these and link them here, but generally, most programs allow you to do this. I bet the free online photoshop program that just went up does, for instance. But if you don't have a posturize option, you can also convert an image to a GIF and specify the number of colors. I usually use photoshop, but I know lots of others use paintshop pro and bunches of other programs.


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Dr. Z said:


> WOAW! Awesome job Sfam! Teach me!
> What kind of tools do you use for carving? Actually I bought this pumpkin carving kit with a pattern book, I guess I was 10/12 years old:
> 
> 
> ...


Woodworking tools, baby! I use the Speedball Cutter set for my main thing:










You can get this at Michaels for around 10 bucks. They also sell it at lots of online stores. You also need the mini saw thing, but you can make this quite easily from hand saw blades if they don't sell any near you. But really, I have quite the collection at this point. For instance, I use clay sculpting tools when I want to do a pumpkin sculpt, such as this "Mars Attacks" pumpkin:


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## mamawof2 (Dec 7, 2007)

All I can say is if any of you were in our annual family pumpkin carving contest, none of the family would show up. WOW!!!! Fantastic carvings.


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

*Hi sfam*

Looks like this thread might really take off.Just wanted to stop by and say hello.Love the Pics you have posted,Started on any for this year yet?I'm still doing some for birthday presents and such. Keep the Dremel tool running cause Halloween is everyday


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## Abunai (Jan 28, 2008)

SFam, 

Is there a standard depth to which you carve to achieve the different shades, or do you have to carve with the pumpkin lit up inside to achieve the right depth/shade?


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## KATZILLA (Dec 6, 2007)

*Thanks for the incredible photos ! *


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## Madame Turlock (Nov 2, 2007)

What an awesome thread. I will find much inspiration here when it's time to do some carving this year. Thanks for posting!


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Abunai said:


> SFam,
> 
> Is there a standard depth to which you carve to achieve the different shades, or do you have to carve with the pumpkin lit up inside to achieve the right depth/shade?


The "rule of thumb" is probably around a 1/2 inch deep, but really it depends on the actual pumpkin. Some are need to be thicker, and some thinner. I generally scrape out the back until I see some real visible movement in the front of the pumpkin (prior to carving), and then as I've skinned some of the non-tricky areas (those areas without lots of cut-throughs), I'll stick it in the bathroom with a candle in it and turn off the lights. This way you can see how much more you need to scrape. I always try to do my final touchups in a dark area - you almost have to if you want an even looking finish.

The other issue is that some pumpkins will have green veins in them. This carving below suffered from this (this most awesome moonfairy pattern comes from a carver named Sage). I got this thing "wafer-thin" but still couldn't get some of the shaved areas as clear as I want. Notice a number of the darker areas that have been shaved - in the daylight, all you see there are green veins.


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Packrat said:


> Looks like this thread might really take off.Just wanted to stop by and say hello.Love the Pics you have posted,Started on any for this year yet?I'm still doing some for birthday presents and such. Keep the Dremel tool running cause Halloween is everyday


Hey Packrat - Howaya? Looks like I'm recruiting here! I found this really cool disney mug with a terrific pattern of Mickey and Chernabog - already in like a 4 color orange on black. I just need to figure out how to get it off the mug. 

But no, I haven't done any pumpkins yet. I always plan to do some fake ones prior to the big day, but I never seem to get around to it. I have like 3 Michael's pumpkins just in case though. I generally seem to get around to about 2 fake ones a year. I usually make fake ones for patterns I'd previously carved on real pumpkins that get a great reaction, but which I don't really want to carve again. Maleficent from the first page fit that pattern this year, for instance, as did my Draco pattern (posted earlier), which I had already carved twice. Here's my "Funkin" version last year:











And we're looking forward to seeing some of your work here too.


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Madame Turlock said:


> What an awesome thread. I will find much inspiration here when it's time to do some carving this year. Thanks for posting!


Terrific! I love to hear that! My real hope it to indoctrinate even MORE pumpkin carvers. You will be assimilated! Here's a Cheshire Cat pumpkin for you - from the computer-horror game, "return to wonderland."


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

mamawof2 said:


> All I can say is if any of you were in our annual family pumpkin carving contest, none of the family would show up. WOW!!!! Fantastic carvings.


Naw, hopefully I'd get more to show up! It's never a competition for me. Its all about the final product, so the more is merrier. 

I'm not sure who did this pattern - it was REALLY popular that year:


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

Catzilla said:


> *Thanks for the incredible photos ! *


Thanks! Have you had a chance to carve the Panthers helmet to a pumpkin yet? I bet it would work wonderfully!

I dunno if there's any Evil Dead fans here, but Ash is one of my absolute FAVORITE movie characters. I did this one a few years ago:


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

*Hey Sfam*

Would love to see the Chernabog design,was thinking of getting that done as a tattoo up my left leg from ankle up.think the ghosts might be a little rough to add in though.Well here are a couple from last year and the past.Wish I could have gotten better Pics last year but the film got messed up in developing,one of these days I'll go digital.Talk to you soon,Happy Carving


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## sfam (Mar 28, 2008)

All great carvings, Packrat! Bravo!


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Welcome Sfam & Packrat 
As Always Great Carvings & Patterns !


To the rest of the board - if you would like to learn how to carve a shaved pumpkin pattern. I put together a Tut last year and placed it on my web site.

This will take you through the entire process (Step by Step)

And may answer many of your pumpkin carving questions.

The Addy is http://www.stoneykins.com/How_To.html

Here's a few of my carvings:


















































Best Witches!
St0ney


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

Welcome aboard StOney,How things been going for ya?


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Thanks Pack !

Things are going better now:

That I figured out why my Images were not showing up on this board?
then it hit me (Last year, I made it so Images could not be hot-linked from my site)

I checked the bandwith stats and only a small hand-full of folks are hot linking.
So I disabled the script for now. (There Now my Photo's are up and running)

LOL


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

That is awesome! It may be the most gruesome pumpkin I've ever seen!


St0ney said:


>


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Thank you Rikki ! 

This carving took 3 hours - from Gut to Fin.

I was lucky to find a perfect peanut shaped pumpkin to carve it on.

Here's a Daytime Shot - showing the rest of the kin.












And here's the same pattern carved by a friend on a fake pumpkin.


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

That's great! Is it one of the patterns in your members section?


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## Muffy (Sep 25, 2006)

What a terrific thread this is!!

Thanks to everyone for all the contributions and info here.......I too am one of those people that I never seem to get to carving my pumpkins. When I was on the farm I use to grow those 150lb'ers and they are a job to get out of the garden. I tried a small pumpkin patch last year here at the new house but they did not do well at all. The soil here is just not real great!

On the farm I think the good soil is what produced such greeat pumpkins. Just a couple of days ago I bought several bags of seeds and I'm gonna try this year to grow my own pumpkins.........if ya want to have a lot of pumpkins around your house it can get pretty costly with the price tag on them anymore.

The neighbor has about 2 acres of garden she puts in & she told us to plant whatever we want up there as my yard garden is too small for the room pumpkins need to grow right. So I'm gonna try my hand at carving this season.

sfam.......your work is incredible...thank you for sharing all these wonderful photos with us!

Look forward to your help & advice as the season draws nearer!

Mistress Muffy


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Rikki said:


> That's great! Is it one of the patterns in your members section?


Yepper - it's a members only pattern - Along with 170+ others. (07 season)

I have another 200 (which will be around 300) going up in AUG for the 08 season.

If anyone is interested in joining my site, *Please WAIT until AUG.*
For ALL memberships end on AUG 1st 2008. 

08 Season starts AUG 2nd, 2008 and ends AUG 1st, 2009

I know it's a strange setup, but it's a seasonal site.
If you join in Aug you get a full Year (all 07 patterns and All the NEW 08 patterns 


I am currently working on a members section PREVIEW pages.
So you can see in advance all the patterns in the members section.
before joining the site.

(Something I should have done last year, but did'nt )


St0ney


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Muffy said:


> What a terrific thread this is!!
> 
> Thanks to everyone for all the contributions and info here.......I too am one of those people that I never seem to get to carving my pumpkins. When I was on the farm I use to grow those 150lb'ers and they are a job to get out of the garden. I tried a small pumpkin patch last year here at the new house but they did not do well at all. The soil here is just not real great!
> 
> ...




That's so Cool, I've been thinking about growing my own for the past few years. but really would need to do some reading up on it.
(no clue - whatsoever on how to get it done)
the only time I have a green thumb, is if I'm painting a wall with green paint.

Some folks on the pumpkin carving board (where the three of us come from)
Grow their own - and the board has a section just on growing your own kins.

the addy of the board is - http://pumpkinwizard.com/newqna/index.php

The section is labled: Growers Exchange

The info there maybe helpful to you
St0ney

Sorry Mistress was I allowed to speak


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## Muffy (Sep 25, 2006)

Thanks so much Stoney....I'm gonna check that out! They really are easy to grow and when I grew them on the farm we had a few different kinds . But I'll tell ya it sure is fun watching those big ones grow. I did exactly what the package said and we ended up with about 7 of them big suckers!

I know my pumpkins from last year did not turn out just because we had them in to small an area and I think we needed to dump several bags of good soil over this clay, altho everything else in my garden grew wonderfully..... all the vegetables and we also grew a bunch of different gourds that came out look'in real good.

There is a web site on the net here somewhere that tells how to grow those monster look'in pumpkins....gonna have to try and find that again.

Oh and yes you may have permission to speak>>>>how obediante you are!!Bravo guy!

MM


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## ylbissop (Sep 6, 2007)

St0ney said:


> That's so Cool, I've been thinking about growing my own for the past few years. but really would need to do some reading up on it.


dosen't linvilla give you special access to their kins?
came out in 07 and saw your stuff at linvilla nice work (you should post fester with the real lightbulb great idea funny as hell). the only thing stopping me from using your patterns is that I love to try and make my own patterns. when where do you typically choose to show off your best?









^self portrait kin^


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Thanks Ylbissop:
Nice Carving 
And it's cool that you make your own patterns.
I started making my own a few years back, and people wowed over them.
So i started making patterns for folks, I could not keep up with all the request
so I decided to open my own site just last year. Now when someone makes a request it gets placed on the site and others can carve it also.

Linvilla hooked me up with a good bunch of kins.
The Fester was pretty funny, until some kid kicked half his face in - LOL
Had the same problem with everyone touching the pumpkins.
Step away from the pumpkins ! (trust me their real) !

My best work is on my Home display - (when I have more time to put into the carvings) At Linvilla most of the carvings were somewhat rushed,
started each day with two blank 8' tables, and by night they were full.
I carved like a dozen each day there. I may carve there again this year, will see? Most of the Photo's of the linvilla kins got washed out by a HUGE spot light that was located right behind me, so the photo's came out pretty darn crappy. If I carve there again, I need a better location towards the back where it's nice and "DARK".

Here's the Fester w/light Bulb a friend carved:










Here's the Virgin Mary:










Mars attacks (Friend (JP) from Jammin Pumpkins Made this pattern)










And a Zombie WereWolf










This year I'm thinking about doing some Promo type kins?
Maybe put Preston and Steve (from WMMR) on a Kin and send it to them.


Gadzooks ! 

St0ney


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## ylbissop (Sep 6, 2007)

St0ney said:


> This year I'm thinking about doing some Promo type kins?
> Maybe put Preston and Steve (from WMMR) on a Kin and send it to them.
> 
> 
> ...


good idea a friend of mine added a story bout them someone wrote in a book he published needless to say once they whent on the show sales went up. it's a good book too.

in fact check out the them fighting zombies pic that was made for the book it would make an awsome design


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## bethene (Feb 12, 2007)

LOVE the werewolf zombie!


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

It's July and I carved my first Pumpkin of the season - LOL

Okay I carved it for a new Tutor I added on my website.

This Carving / Tutor is how to carve a Foam Pumpkin.
What's nice about these Fake pumpkins is they last a life-time, and are great gifts. 

(I also added a few more tutors)

Anywho Here's the Carving the Tutor is based on.










The Tutor is located here: Stoneykins.com Click the How 2 button, when ya get there.


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

I didn't realize that you could shave a fake pumpkin! I've always been too nervous to try shaving a jack anyway. You may have inspired me to try it this year, though!


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Give it a shot - you'll love the detail you can archive in shading.

Just take your time.



Shaded patterns do take longer than cut threws .
But you can't get as much detail in cut threw patterns.

each year I do about 50/50
1/2 cut threw and 1/2 shaded patterns.

Having both makes a great display.


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

Ah Yes the Mona Simmons one of Da Vinci's lesser known paintings,Looks good StOney,Getting a Early Jump on the rest of us?


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## EvilMel (Dec 6, 2007)

Wow.

Around here people think I'm a supremely awesome pumpkin carver. I totally feel lame now. hah hah.

I always use the patterns from Pumpkin Masters, but more often I use the ones from Zombie Pumpkins. I had no idea there were other pattern sites out there. I will definitely join yours this year.


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## Pumpkinprincess (Aug 8, 2007)

My pumpkins are my favorite aspect of my haunt each year. I have about two dozen funkins so far and carve about 40 real pumpkins each year. 

Now, thanks to Stoneykin I am going to do "windowkins" on all my front and side windows. I think they will look great and work well with my pirate theme this year.

I'm going to start with a couple of my own designs now, and get some more once membership opens in a month.


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## EvilMel (Dec 6, 2007)

WOW. 40 pumpkins! That's awesome.

I was in Washington state around Halloween two years ago and we went to a pumpkin patch and picked out pumpkins. It was awesome!


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## Pumpkinprincess (Aug 8, 2007)

I just moved to Washington. I wonder how much the pumpkins are here. I could pick up tons of pumpkins when I lived in Ohio. I paid pennys on the pound. When I moved to North Carolina I could find them at Walmart for $2.50 a piece. I used my boss' wine celler to store them.

I don't have any idea about this year. That's why I'm going to start early and buy funkins as soon as I see them in the store.


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## WonderfullyWicked (Mar 29, 2005)

Like a lot of others, pumpkin carving tends to get pushed to the back burners. I didn't realize you could shave those Michael's foam pumpkins. Now that I know I think I could commit to making a lot of these in the offseason.
Thanks!


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## EvilMel (Dec 6, 2007)

Sadly, while I SUPER hate Wal-mart...I too get pumpkins from there mainly.

If you dig to the bottom of those large cardboard bins, the really huge ones are down there. You can get large ones for like $3!

I also go to a lot of other places and buy pumpkins, just to spread the money around and try to overcome my guilt for buying from Wal-Mart, hah hah.


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## childofthenight (Aug 24, 2007)

wow everyones carvings are awesome!!! I really liked the one that was my avatar, never thought i would see it on a pumpkin.I was like WOW thats cool. I dont have any pics, but will post them when I do..again great job everyone!!


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Wow - I'm glad this thread is taking off 
I look forward to seeing all of your carvings.

Last year I carved over 100 kins, I was asked by a local farm to carve on weekends for them. 
What was funny, Is a lot of the carvings took some time to carve, and the biggest hit was a pumpkin that I carved the (pi) symbol on.

Pumpkin Pie get it - LOL was such a hit I carved it 8 times (every sat/sun) for the month of Oct. Takes about 2 minutes to carve.










Anywho - Glad you guys like the tutors - and are able to come up with some new ideas, for your displays like the Windowkins. 
The last photo on that tutor - is 2 of zombies patterns, I cut them in 1/4 plywood with a jigsaw, and each are 6 foot tall. They Looked awesome at night.

As far as other pattern Sites check out my links page.
There are many great sites out there for Unique patterns.

St0ney


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

EvilMel said:


> Wow.
> 
> Around here people think I'm a supremely awesome pumpkin carver. I totally feel lame now. hah hah.



It's not about carving better than carving's you see online !
It's about carving pumpkins better than your neighbors. - LOL

As long as you take your time, you can carve anything.
If shaving for the first time, try it on a simpler pattern, then move on to something more complicated. 

*YOU CAN DO IT !*


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Packrat said:


> Ah Yes the Mona Simmons one of Da Vinci's lesser known paintings,Looks good StOney,Getting a Early Jump on the rest of us?


LOL !


The real "Da Vinci code" was......

He liked to rock and roll all night, and party everyday.


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

And was drinking Cold Gin evidently


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## EvilMel (Dec 6, 2007)

St0ney said:


> It's not about carving better than carving's you see online !
> It's about carving pumpkins better than your neighbors. - LOL
> 
> As long as you take your time, you can carve anything.
> ...


Yeah, I am still going to carve the living heck outta pumpkins this fall.

At least I'm known for being one of the best carvers around Knoxville. A couple of my friends told me I should try to carve for the local businesses, but I am not sure about it. 

I haven't tried to do the shading carving yet. 

I'm SUPER into carving slasher figures from horror movies. I did a bunch of those patterns from the Zombie Pumpkins site two years ago and put them all around my yard. I can't find any pictures of them though. 

Maybe this year I'll try one of the shaded patterns. I've got a wicked awesome tool kit that includes some tools for doing that very thing.

Have you guys got the pumpkin gutter? What about that pumpkin masters electric pumpkin saw? I love them both.


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

For the Fake pumpkins I usually just use a small saw and my Dremel tool.On the real ones I can use the same saws but for the shading I like to use clay sculpting tools


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## Magickbean (Dec 6, 2007)

There are some *phenomenal* carvings here - you all put my simple Jack O'Lantern faces to shame lol! *blushes*

I must say that after seeing all this gorgeous work, I am incredibly inspired to give one of the more artistic patterns a go, though...I do so love to carve pumpkins!


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

Hey Mel,here is one you might get a kick out of


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## EvilMel (Dec 6, 2007)

That IS neat.

I did a Freddy last year from a Zombie Pumpkins pattern.

Yours is really cool!


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## FamilyCorner (Aug 30, 2008)

Holy moly! These carvings are incredible, you guys are so talented!!

I found some cool patterns on the net, would love any additional links if anyone has them  These are free to download.

Here are some cool political pumpkin carving patterns
http://www.fabulousliving.com/compon...icle/514/27980

and a ton of others more appropriate for kids LOL
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/compone...icle/584/21465

The second link has a Harry Potter carving pattern for HP fans!

Anyone else have any links to patterns?


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

First for the year !


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## LadyAlthea (Sep 11, 2008)

wow. my pumpkin pics pale in comparison to these...


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

Great Job StOney,but now I am hungry


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## Mr. Halloween (Oct 7, 2007)

anyone know of a bernie mac stencil??


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## FamilyCorner (Aug 30, 2008)

That's awesome, great job!


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## MikeCuCu (Aug 27, 2007)

*Some free disney pumpkin patterns*

Happy Baby - Fun Tools - Online Games - Pumpkin Stencils


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## Junit (Sep 1, 2008)

You have some very awesome pumpkins carved up! I can't believe you have so much patience!! You should post up some of your patterns and see if you can find a rival on here


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

Sounds like a good Idea,Here is one ithis year for a friend who wanted one of his English Bulldog
Here it is in Gray:








And here is the Pattern:








And the Finished Carving:


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## ice111302 (Apr 15, 2008)

those are incredible....what a talent u have.....great works of art!!!! did u send any of these to Disney.....it may be a great side job


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## Halloween Princess (Sep 23, 2008)

Wow, I am inspired. I didn't do any this year but I want to do a bunch next year. I plan to do all Funkins cause I don't have the patience to redo them every year. I can just keep a growing collection. I just need to figure out what tools to use.


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## Hauntcast (Oct 3, 2007)

*Pumpkin carving*

I love the stuff Extreme Pumpkins does. I used a few of his ideas this season. Simple and very cool.


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Been a While Since I've Posted here.

Here's a Few Extreme Carvings I did this past Season.
these are Foam Pumpkins carved with a dremel. (NO ROTTING).
But they do crack like an egg if Dropped - LOL


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

A few More


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

And the Foam ones tend to go up in flames really quick if you use a candle(And I didn't have that happen St0ney,know someone who did though)Your Carvings look great as always dude.


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## hallorenescene (Dec 28, 2007)

wow, this is an old thread, how did i miss it. some great work you guys. very impressive. somehow if i did that detailed of work it would have to be on a fake pumpkin. no way would i want to part with it. i think of doing funkins, but they are so expensive, so if i messed up it would suck. so i just procrastinate. one day though. one day


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

You might be able to find a good deal on foam pumpkins at Michaels.They have them down here and have sales on them before halloween,Makes it a little bit easier when you have to get 10 or 12


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## rockplayson (Jun 7, 2008)

St0ney those are AMAZING. I wish I had that talent.


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## One eyed Mick (Feb 19, 2008)

One of my neighbors carved this skull and crossbones pumpkin for my Pirate haunt in 2008.....


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## hallorenescene (Dec 28, 2007)

very nice. bet it looked great lit up


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## bethene (Feb 12, 2007)

wow, fantastic pumpkins, st0ney love the one of Ledger! incrediable detailing on all, I am glad they are on funkins, they are too good to be rotting!
mic214, love the skull and cross bones,what a great addition to a pirate theme!!


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

Hey StOney wanted to thank you for giving me the idea to do this one.


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## hallorenescene (Dec 28, 2007)

packrat, that is cool.


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

Glad you liked it Hallorenscene,Did a bunch this year that were fun and mostly used the foam pumpkins


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## Packrat (Apr 4, 2008)

This was one of the most popular ones I did


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Hey thanks everyone !

mic214 - Yea that Skull carve has very clean Lines. (nice Carve) !
And packrat - the Kiss pumpkin and Oz witch came out awesome.

Here's a Video I put together last year - it shows some really Cool pumpkin carvings. There is a Mix of Real and foam Pumpkins and water melon carvings.
The carvings were done by a good number of different carvers of my site.

There's around 100 different carves.


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## One eyed Mick (Feb 19, 2008)

I was very surprised and pleased when my neighbor brought it over and gave it to me! I thought she really did a great job on it. I didn't think of getting a picture of it when it was lit up though....

Anyway, thanks to this thread, I am thinking of getting a foam pumpkin and using the picture as a template, making another one to add to my pirate haunt....!!!!


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## Boo Baby (Oct 7, 2008)

Fabulous Stoney!! Those are some amazing carvings and I thought I did a good job at carving a pumpkin. I have a long way to go to get near the complexity I saw in those carvings...to say it again...WOW!!


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## Frankie's Girl (Aug 27, 2007)

oooooh Packrat! I have to show the KISS jol to my hubby. He's a big fan!
(guess I know what we'll be adding to the carving list this year! )


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

St0ney, I've always wondered whether you could "scrape" the fake pumpkins like that. Fantastic job! Do you use Funkins or the Michael's style foam pumpkins?


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

I always carve foam pumpkins so I can keep and reuse them. I took a few home this year to display but here is the rest of my collection.  I had color-changing lights in a bunch of them and with the long exposure on the picture it turned them all the same color....but you still get the idea.


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Rikki said:


> St0ney, I've always wondered whether you could "scrape" the fake pumpkins like that. Fantastic job! Do you use Funkins or the Michael's style foam pumpkins?


Their Micheal's (made by Gemmy)
I do like funkins - but their a bit pricey.

When the Micheal's are on sale you could get them for 7 to 10 bucks.

A dremel is used to do the scraping and Cutting.

For a Cleaner Look on the cut-outs, Some will use a Hot knife for the Cuts.
But you still need the dremel for the shading (Scraping).


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## AuraofForeboding (Oct 4, 2009)

WOW. Your pumpkins are amazing! I am so humbled by your artistry! JESH. Do you do other kind of art? Thanks for posting!


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## hallorenescene (Dec 28, 2007)

stony and packrat, not to shabby at all. 
rikki, [


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## Wolfman (Apr 15, 2004)

All these intricate carvings are all very well and good. In fact, some of you here have displayed great talent for this medium. But, as far as I'm concerned, a Jack O'Lantern is a Jack O'Lantern. And if you can have it shed a little illumination on the ground in front of you on Hallowe'en Night, all the better!!


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## hallorenescene (Dec 28, 2007)

stony and packrat, not to shabby at all. 
rikki, [ ] would be a nice gift for a secret reaper


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Wolfman said:


> All these intricate carvings are all very well and good. In fact, some of you here have displayed great talent for this medium. But, as far as I'm concerned, a Jack O'Lantern is a Jack O'Lantern. And if you can have it shed a little illumination on the ground in front of you on Hallowe'en Night, all the better!!


Hey Wolfman Yep I agree - Any Jack-O adds to the whole Halloween experience.
This year I decided to add about 6 to 8 traditional Jack-O Faces to the 2010 Members Patterns. For I still enjoy seeing traditional Jack O'Lantern's

Here's a few Mocks

























I also like pumpkin carving for it also is a great family thing.
To get the kids involved with making the display.

My Son helped me out this season when I was Carving at a Farm.
He has his mothers eye's (in a Jar) - LOL


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## Rikki (Aug 14, 2006)

hallorenescene said:


> rikki, [ ] would be a nice gift for a secret reaper


I would be so afraid that it would get broken in transit!  I love my foam pumpkins but they are slighly fragile after carving them. I store them on a shelf because I'm afraid to put them in boxes! 


St0ney, thanks for the info! I use the Michael's brand. I wasn't sure if there might be some difference that let you shade one kind but not the other. I may have to attempt one this year, thanks to your inspiration!


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## Junit (Sep 1, 2008)

Beautiful pumpkins Rikki!


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## St0ney (Oct 1, 2007)

Rikki said:


> I would be so afraid that it would get broken in transit!  I love my foam pumpkins but they are slighly fragile after carving them. I store them on a shelf because I'm afraid to put them in boxes!
> 
> 
> St0ney, thanks for the info! I use the Michael's brand. I wasn't sure if there might be some difference that let you shade one kind but not the other. I may have to attempt one this year, thanks to your inspiration!


No Problem at all - if you have any questions on the shading technique, when you get to it, - Ask away.

And I also agree great job on those carves.
I really do like the effect of the color lights, Green seems to really pop .


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