Carve a great pumpkin, This summer,Perfect Pumpkin Carving Patterns for Every Personality, Amanda Mears of Murfreesboro began carving sculptures out of fruit. So when Halloween rolled around,

she "wanted to do one step up" by sculpting pumpkins. Using a fountain pen, Murfreesboro mom Callie Fowler first scores her pumpkin design into the surface of the pumpkin. She tapes the stencil onto the pumpkin to keep it in place.

"I free-hand everything, but you can always draw on a simple pattern," said Mears, who also makes specialty cakes.

She got her idea for her toothy-grinning pumpkin by following a picture of a pumpkin design she liked. Often, she'll just Google photos of pumpkins to see if she finds a design.

Just like you would with carving any other jack-o'-lantern, she cuts out a top and scoops out the "guts" before beginning.

There are no "fancy tools" you have to use, Mears noted. "You use a simple paring knife just to carve out the design," she said. "Then I used an old-school potato peeler with a pointed tip. I used that to cut the very top layer of the pumpkin — the orange skin, just like you're peeling an apple."

From there she uses the pointed end of the peeler and "starts digging out the design" for the teeth and mouth. "I made the crevices (for the teeth) just one at a time," she added.

When you start carving all the way through, it's best to use a serrated knife, which "helps you get all the way through the pumpkin."

The design for her first sculpted pumpkin was fairly simple, she said, and not extremely detailed. She recommends first-timers try a simple design first. But be prepared to mess up a bit. When that happens, just improvise, she added.

"Don't be worried about messing up. If you make (a mistake) it just adds to the effect," said Mears, who ended up making her pumpkin's teeth pointed after one tooth chipped off. "Just be creative and have fun."

Callie Fowler of Murfreesboro relies mostly on stencils for her designs. But she's garnered some techniques that make her pumpkin carving a little easier and more successful.

First, she cuts out the top, or you can cut out the bottom, "if you want to sit it on a candle." Once the main hole is cut, she guts the pumpkin, making sure to scrape out the interior wall fairly thin to make it easier to carve. She also saves the pumpkin seeds to roast. (Simply wash off the seeds, mix with about 2 teaspoons olive oil, then salt and pepper and toast for about 7 minutes in a 350-degree oven.)

Patterns are either found on the Internet (see dnj.com for some downloadable stencils) or in pumpkin-carving kits. She tapes on the design and then uses a fountain pen, which she pokes through the paper to score the design on the pumpkin. "You don't want to go all the way through, you just want to cut through the surface," she said.

Although she sometimes uses the mini hand saw in pumpkin-carving kits, she said saws used to carve modeling clay work well and are a bit sturdier. Woodworking tools perform well, too.

Once she has scored the design, she sits and holds the pumpkin in her lap to gain more control. "You want to do the small, intricate (parts) in the center first and work your way out," she said. "That way it is less likely to break the design. They tend to get really weak."

When the shapes break free while you are carving, she pushes them through. "As you pull out the shapes, you may have to trim it up a bit so you can see the light coming through (the design)," Fowler said.

After she is finished carving the design, Fowler rubs the exterior with vegetable oil, or you can use petroleum jelly.

"Pumpkins are really prone to rot. So to preserve them, you coat it with oil or petroleum jelly," she said. "They last a lot longer that way."

And you'll often see her with more than one jack-o'-lantern decorating her front porch.

"I love pumpkins. You can just do so much with them," Fowler said. "They are just giant orbs of creativity."

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Source: dnj