pumpkin carving.

when i flew back to new york, i picked up the current copy of martha stewart living in one of the airports. the pumpkins on the cover just spoke to me.


i read the article and went to the website for the stencil, and decided that this was definitely something i wanted to try. it wasn’t hard to get my 11 yr old brother [there’s a big age gap between us] to carve pumpkins with me :)



i went to michael’s and got the cheap-o carving kit i buy [& break] every year, and got a bigger saw too.

my little pumpkin carving tip is that i always make a weird point to my pumpkin top, so that i can always tell [very easily] how to put the top on so that it fits well.


i decided to not use the stencil, but just draw my own gingko vine from martha’s photo. i traced a wandering vine (no leaves) first, and went to town trying to figure out how to just scrape away the skin, and make it look pretty.

this was my first attempt, with the scraper edge of one of the saws.


it wasn’t as precise as i wanted. it would’ve been ok… but not for someone who is woody-allen-grade neurotic like me.

i then raided my parents’ house (the scene of the pumpkin carving), looking for something more suitable. i landed on a vegetable peeler with a pointy end.


that worked ok… and i got the vine part done with it, but i had to put my hands on the blade part to get the control i needed. it wasn’t very safe, and so my mom’s friend, nancy, went and got me her wood carving tools [she is so nice like that].

with the wood working tools, my berries and ginkgo leaves looked much more like martha’s!


and here it is illuminated, alongside my brother’s! [forgive my amateur photography here… i’m still learning my low-light settings]

i'm pretty happy with the outcome! :)