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You’re not stabbing, you’re carving. You are not crazy, you are creative. Not irrational, but passionate. Yes, that’s right. You are an artist at work.

And it’s for the kids! Of course it’s for the kids.

I’ve had a busy week. So have you. Don’t let the pressure get the best of you this week, you have an opportunity here for some serious creative self expression in the most aggressively satisfying way. This isn’t about Martha Stewart’s immaculate holiday detailing, this is about you getting messy and hacking through a gourd. Let’s roll up our sleeves and dig in. Chop-chop.

Safety First

Of course. Of course when you are using a knife and cutting through the tough flesh of an unpredictable pumpkin you should pay attention and carve responsibly. Don’t think I’ll just get this one bit here…and leave your fingers in the line of fire should the pumpkin give and send your knife forward without resistance. You are a grown up, be safe. Don’t chop off your fingers.

A Word on Mother Martha

Love her or hate her or bid on her prison pajamas on Ebay, Martha Stewart (http://www.marthastewart.com/) has given me two hot tips for pumpkin carving that I swear by. Here they are:

1. Cut out the bottom of the pumpkin, not the “lid”. This solves all sorts of problems. The pumpkin looks better with no lop sided lid interrupting your lines, you have far more freedom to play with your design now that the top of the head is all fair game and when you light the pumpkin your candle will be on a flat surface (the table or whatever you are placing your pumpkin on) instead of wobbling on the pumpkin’s insides. You just place the candle down, and lower the pumpkin over top.
2. Expanding your tool selection. Martha herself (of course) has her own line of pumpkin carving tools, which are fantastic. But you can also grap some at your local hardware or grocery store. I use a good serving spoon with a long handle to scrape and clean out the pumpkin guts, and have found that a small saw is much more effective and less prone to slipping than a kitchen knife.

De-Guttering: A Safe Symbolic Disembowelment

Emptying the pumpkin might be the best part for expressing a visceral need. It’s messy, yes. Most cathartic things are.

Lay down some newspaper and start scooping. You may need to scrape and scoop, then scoop and scrape. All pumpkins are a little different inside. If you want to save the seeds, don’t be shy about letting a little bit of the pumpkin flesh into your bowl of seeds, it adds to the flavour when you bake them. I’m a fan of the pumpkin seed recipe from the good people of Extreme Pumpkins.

Lose yourself in this process. Just clear it all away. Scrape and scoop. You are creating space for yourself. Let your hands get dirty. Take it all in, the smell, the sensation, the color and texture of the whole experience.

Got Kids?

That’s nice. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t carve your own pumpkin, the way you want it. You can still help your kids with their pumpkins, and have a pumpkin that is all yours. You deserve to be creative and have a place to express yourself just as much as they do, and showing them that adults have that right is an important example for your children. Do you want them to grow up and then shrug and say well, I’m all grown up now I guess no more drawing and singing and pumpkin carving for me? Let’s stop this silly cycle.

If you want not only your own pumpkin but the time to create by yourself, do it at night when the kids are asleep, like you would if you were wrapping presents. They will most likely enjoy the surprise of your creation in the morning.

Jack Without a Face

There are a million ways you can carve your pumpkin. In fact, you don’t even have to carve it. You can drill into it (another great tip from Martha), paint on it, glue things to it, hammer things into it, whatever feels right.

From traditional faces with clean simple shapes, to the stenciling of Halloween silhouettes or the creative gross out tactics executed at Extreme Pumpkins, you have many options to choose from. I invite you to consider not only the question what will look the best, but also, what will be the most fun to make?

Light Up the Night

Why wait for Halloween and the trick-or-treaters to light up your creation? Why not enjoy your newly created lantern indoors, just for you. See what magic your lantern holds when you dim the pot lights and see shapes from your pumpkin art dancing on your walls.

Performance Anxiety

You don’t even have to use your pumpkin for Halloween, you know.

You can just carve it, carve it and destroy it.

You can carve a word into it, something that captures what you wish for yourself, and then destroy it. This is you taking time to get physical and creative and out of your thoughts. There are no rules about carving pumpkins.

That is what I love about Halloween. This is the time for breaking rules.

Resources

For a list of tools and what they can do for your pumpkin, check out Martha Stewart’s must haves for pumpkin carving.

As well, Martha’s pumpkin carving ideas on Halloween Workshop 2008.

There are more tips and ideas from Pumpkin Carving 101.

Certainly don’t miss the fun at Extreme Pumpkins.