Trading tips for gutting, transferring, and carving the real thing.
#5249
Ok, the story is this. The kids and I are pumpkin shopping on Saturday night at the roadside stand of a local farmer. We get talking and I mention how much we all love to carve pumpkins each year.

Then he announces as casual as can be, he'll pay me $100 if we can carve 30 Jack's for him by Tuesday. I wasn't about to say no.

We were originally going to get them today, but fate interfered and we won't get them until 2:00 tomorrow. It will be myself, my 3 kids, and later on my hubby, but I don't know if it's possible to do so many so fast.

SO.. Any tips, tricks or suggestions on how to pull this off will be greatly appreciated!

Wish us Luck!

Gale
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By Zombie Pumpkins!
#5252
Will they be basic jack-o-lantern faces? Or do you plan to use stencils for more elaborate designs? Simpler is probably better, in this case. Although, it wouldn't hurt to toss in a couple that will give them the "wow factor." :wink:

The Pumpkin Gutter is a quick way to clean out the insides of your pumpkin, but if you don't have one already, you won't be able to order one in time.

You could assign the kids different jobs, depending on who is good at what. One person gutting, one person transferring patterns (if you're doing that), one person carving, etc. Have an assembly line going.

If you are transferring patterns, the hole poking method is probably too slow. You could try the gluing method or use some graphite transfer paper which has worked pretty well for me also.

I know there are some "power carvers" around these forums that do displays of 100+ pumpkins. Hopefully they'll chime in here and offer their experienced advice.
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By pumkin-lights
#5273
ya i agree with ryan the more basic the quicker
and have one gutting ane transfering and one carving
then maybee swap around so everyone gets a go


man and i thought i had it tough i have to do 14 over 2 days
on my own for a party
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By haloween enthusiast
#5304
i agree with them u will need a assembly line gogin or u will not make it and if it is sut basic pattens leik jack o lanterns its easy if it is more distinct sctencils u might be sol i personally do 20 on average every year but is tart early and jsutkeep them wetso i woudl also offer the information that you can use a router ro sped things up and a dremel
By stormqueen29
#5347
Well, the good news is our deadline was extended until Wednesday instead of Tuesday.

As of tonight, we have all 40 gutted and about 27 scraped down, doing it all by hand.

The glue method seems to be the way to go with the stencils, I can't believe I sepnt so long poking pumpkins!

I am taking photos as we go, which I will post when we are done.

We are doing almost all picture stencils, with a handful of faces thrown in. There will be several Zombie pumpkins in the mix, and a few from JP. Most of the rest are PM patterns. BUT we are at least sticking to the simplest stencils in my collection, so we figure an average of 30 minutes of carving for most of them.

I think after this I will invest in one of those pumpkin gutters, we'd already be carving if we had one of those.

Wish us luck to finish the task.

Gale
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By haloween enthusiast
#5349
that is great news that u got a couple extra days and it is wise to be useing the simplier patterns instad of the hard ones i good luck on the rest of your pumpkins and i hope u are also enjoying it