Pumpkins

I first started carving pumpkins back in 1995 or '96 when Michael's Crafts began carrying Pumpkin Masters carving kits. For those of you who haven’t seen them, these kits consist of a couple of tiny saws and a book of paper patterns that you tape to the pumpkin. It also includes a sharp tool that you use to poke holes through the pattern and into the pumpkin flesh, making a sort of connect-the-dots image. I broke a lot of saws in the beginning, but over the last fifteen years I've pretty much gotten the hang of it. Now I try to do between ten and fifteen pumpkins every Halloween, and since we get roughly 400 trick-or-treaters every year, the display has become something of a neighborhood tradition.

I didn’t start taking pictures of the pumpkins until 2002 (when the arrival of our first daughter finally pushed us to buy a digital camera), and even then, the quality of the first year or two of photos leaves something to be desired. Nonetheless, it gives a good idea of what I've been up to every Halloween, and I'll keep posting annually so anyone who's interested can see the latest designs.

Click on the pumpkins below to see a larger image and any noteworthy details about the carving. If you'd like to take a crack at them yourself, feel free to check out my pumpkin carving tips.