Jack-O-Lantern Carving

TheBigDog · 10-27-2006

My favorite holiday is upon us. And this weekend it the great odyssey in my house known as pumpkin carving day.

I am going to post pictures of the final products, and possible pictures of the process in this thread. And I invite others to do the same thing. The deadline is Halloween.

On Halloween night I will add a poll for people to choose their favorite.

Let the carving begin!!!

Bill

Turtle · 10-27-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBigDog

My favorite holiday is upon us. And this weekend it the great odyssey in my house known as pumpkin carving day.

I am going to post pictures of the final products, and possible pictures of the process in this thread. And I invite others to do the same thing. The deadline is Halloween.

On Halloween night I will add a poll for people to choose their favorite.

Let the carving begin!!!

Bill

I did mine a couple days ago at the risk of it rotting before the dead rise to walk the cold and rainy night of All Hallows Eve. Ah but the rotten Jack-O'-Lantern is always the trick to the kick of some punk expecting something rather more substantial!

Here's the house Jack Of The Lantern:

TheBigDog · 10-28-2006

The pumpkin carving is ready to begin at my house. We bought 6 pumpkins. One for each member of the family to carve. The hardest part is always scooping out the seeds and gooey innards of the pumpkin. It always seems to take forever. But then the carving begins and everyone is happy again. Right this minute #4 is literally running back and forth across the room in anticipation, and #3 is crying in his room that it will not be exciting enough, and #2 is printing a stencil he found online to trace out what he wants to carve. #1 is running the grill at McDonalds, and said he has no interest in pumpkin carving this year. And Shannon is picking a stencil for herself online. I am going to freehand my pumpkin. I am an oldschool carver. But first I need to convince #3 that this might actually be fun, if not exciting.

Photos to follow later tonight.

Bill

Jay-qu · 10-28-2006

I am interested to know what the origen of pumpkin carving is?

TheBigDog · 10-28-2006

OK!! The evening of pumpkin carving has come to an end, and everyone had a great time. Even #3 came down from his top bunk perch where he was wallowing in the unfairness of it all, and decided to have a great time. What follows is the story of my evening. Complete with pictures.

First we spread newspapers over the dining room table. And opened the three carving kits that Shannon picked up at the dollar store. Then everyone got to work digging out the guts of the pumpkins. The scoops that came with the kits were amazingly efficient, and the exercise lated about a all of five mintes. YEAH!!!

The cast of characters that you see are from left to right #3, #4, #2, Celtfaery. Charlie (the dog) is under the table. I am behind the camera. Pay no attention to the dates in the pictures. I am not sure what is up with that.

Next we have a picture of #3 hard at work carving his pumpkin. He did the whole thing by himself. The only help he got was with cutting the hole in the top, and getting all of the guts cleaned out. And made me damn proud of how well he did.

Next up we have #4. You see his pictured when just the eyes were cut out. He used teh different shapes that came with the carving kits to mark where he wanted it cut. And I cut everything out for him. He isn't quite strong enough to cut it himself. But I let him try while I was busy doing other things.

Then we have the industrious #2. He had a plan, and enough experience that he was basically on his own. He printed out a stencil from teh computer and used it to outline the crosses that you see. They are from Stronghold Cruisader, his favorite game.

Next up is Celtfairy, otherwise know as Shannon. She printed out a hugely complex picture. It is a bride and groom. Halloween is after all our wedding anniversary (11 years this year). So the tools in the kits from the dollar store were not quite up to snuff, and she resorted to busting out the exacto knife to do the detail work. I think it came out looking very cool. I would never have the patients to do all that detail work like that!

There are no pictures of me working on mine, because I was the one taking pictures. So we now jump to the finished products...

First, here are all of the Jack-O-Lanterns lined up on the dining room table and lit with candles. I had to put my finger over the flash to get the "glowing" look in the picture that is seen with the naked eye. And I had to do some experimenting with how much to cover the flash. So some of these are a little dark. In the top left corner you can seen the screen from the XM radio. I was too lazy to crop any further when I realized it was in the frame.

Now here is the same picture with the brightness adjusted by my photo software. I thought it looked cool.

Here is Shannon's Jack-O-Lantern. If you look you can make out the bride and groom. I had trouble getting a good image of this pumpkin.

Next is #4's Jack-O-Lantern. You can see the evolutionary process that it want through. First he had me cut out the triangle eyes. Adn he said the space in the middle was the nose, so we didn't need to cut one. Then he asked me to cut out "an angry mouth". And I gave that a shot, and for about five minutes it was considered done. Then a nose had to be added, so we found the shape and location he wanted and I cut that out. And for about another five minutes it was done again. Then he started to cut eyebrows by himself. And he continued to work on them while I did my pumpkin. Then I cut the round eyebrows

and it was done again. And this time for good.

Next is mine. I like the kind of Japanese Kabuto theme that I got. It has the long eyebrows, and eyes with pupils detailed at the top. A pug nose with nostrils at the bottom. And a huge mouth that features tusk like teeth on the top, and a forked tongue on the bottom. I really like how it came out. I am good for one a year.

Then we have #2's. It is in the left of the picture. None of the pictures of it by itself came out good. And I got tired of going back and fourth taking pictures. And I guess I am too lazy to crop it. But doesn't it look cool? I like the two big crosses. They look like daggers. He was not happy with the other one he cut in the middle, but when he saw it lit up he thought it was a good idea after all. I think he did a kick-ass job!

And finally, here is the masterpeice from #3. He describes it as a happy pumpkin. And it does look happy to me. I also like the offset eye, it reminds me of the freak from the goonies. I can't remember his name. The lighting is a little different, but it was a struggle with now way of adjusting the camera aside from putting my finger or some other filter over the flash. Great job Lumpy!

So those are the Jack-O-Lanterns from this year. A great time was had by all. I look forwatd to seeing the pumpkins that YOU are carving this year.

Bill

Jay-qu · 10-28-2006

Quote:

None of the pictures of it by itself came out good. And I got tired of going back and fourth taking pictures. And I guess I am too lazy to crop it. But doesn't it look cool?

sure sure, you just want extra pics of your own

They all look very cool! I hope to give this a shot one day, I already have some ideas.

So does anyone know the history of the Jack-O-Lantern?

TheBigDog · 10-28-2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jay-qu

So does anyone know the history of the Jack-O-Lantern?

Lets see...

http://members.aol.com/ezpumpkin/jack.htm
http://www.thepumpkinmaster.com/hist..._o_lantern.htm

Seems that it is an Irish fable of a character named "Stringy Jack". When he died he was not allowed in heaven or hell, and walked th earth with a hollowed out turnip with a glowing coal in it. So the Irish used to hollow out different gords on Halloween to ward off the spirit of "Stringy Jack".

Bill