Once the summer ended, and even though I was stuck indoors more often than not, I didn’t have much inspiration to create. That is, until October rolled around and I started generating ideas for jack o’lanterns!
I wanted to do some repeats of ideas I’d enjoyed making previous years, like the cat on a branch and Jack Skellington, but I also had some fun new ideas I wanted to try, like a mandala.
And even though I still had two more that I’d been waiting to carve, because they were more intricate, I made a last-minute addition. Roman Reigns, a WWE wrestler, announced he’s taking a leave of absence as he battles leukemia. It broke my heart to hear the news, so I went and bought a 6th pumpkin (the other 4 had already been designed out weeks earlier), and created one in his honor.
Finally, the complicated, way more detailed ideas, like doing The Phenomenal One, AJ Styles’ logo. (He’s my favorite WWE wrestler. I even dressed as him for Halloween last year.) And attempting to do Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. These two required a bit more technique than the others, but I was excited to see what I was capable of. I started with AJ’s logo, scraping the logo away in relief rather than carving straight through the pumpkin. (Though I did carve out the stars). Once I was done, I scraped away the inside of the pumpkin to make the walls thin enough for the light to shine through.
I used the same method for Stitch, it just required a lot more work since there were so many small details. Instead of using a vegetable peeler, as I’d anticipated, I ended up using a citrus knife to peel and chisel away the skin. It worked, but I’ll definitely look into investing in some different tools next year. Maybe a scalpel, as someone suggested. X-D
Hope you all enjoyed your Halloweens as well. If you carved any pumpkins, I’d love to see them! In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a girl who enjoys smushing her hands into pumpkin guts as much as I do.