We love Halloween! Here at illooms® we love our pumpkin carving! Every year we have a staff contest to see who can create the most spectacular pumpkin. It gets very serious! Lots of planning, research & endless hours spent carving & sculpting to win the coveted prize.
Lee, our Head of Operations, won last year’s carving award.
So we asked him to share his top tips for carving his masterpiece.
- Research some ideas & sketch something original as a plan.
- Choose the right pumpkin. Once you have in mind what you want to create – it’s important to choose one that will work for you. Lee’s top tips – look for one with a stem (preferably green) as will be fresher. Bigger pumpkins are easier to carve due to the size, but check the weight – lift it. The heavier ones have thicker flesh, lighter ones hollower. Don’t dismiss a weird shape one these can work better for some. Check the flesh over for color/bruises. Lighter pumpkins are easier to carve, bruises show that it’s already started to deteriorate.
- Tools. Ensure you have a selection of tools to carve. There are lots of pumpkin carving kits available which are great to use with children or you can select a few different sized knives.
- Decapitation? Many people opt for cutting the top off 1st, but you can always cut an area out from the back instead & leave the stem intact.
- Scoop. Once you access the inside – scoop out the gooey pulp & seeds using a spoon or ice cream scoop. Here at illooms® we are very healthy – so don’t throw the seeds away – rinse the seeds & bake in an oven, for a healthy snack. Scrape the inside of the rest of pumpkin completely to expose the light-colored flesh, which reflects more light.
- Create your Masterpiece. Either sketch your design on paper to lightly trace onto the surface or directly onto the pumpkin itself with a dry wipe pen or water-based marker.
- Once carving, work quickly as the pumpkins dry out, use a water to spray to moisten if you find it drying out too quickly. Once finished – cling wrap & store in a cool dry place if it’s a couple of days before it’s needed.
- Light up your pumpkin!! Rather than using a naked flame – try out one of our illooms® to add a great long lasting light but also a colorful glow. Simply place inside the pumpkin before inflating! Find out more here.
Finally, want to show off your pumpkin design? Take a snap of your creation and send it to us via our upload photos form which can be found here. We may feature it in our pumpkin gallery.
Also, check on our blog next week for this year’s 2017 staff pumpkin winners (& losers)