My Top 20 pumpkins from 2018-2020
Pumpkin season is upon us, and I have dug out my carving tools, picked my three home grown pumpkins and bought my ticket to the Cairnie pumpkin patch.
This will be my fourth year carving pumpkins, and once again, The Dory, Pittenweem, have kindly offered to display my carvings in their window.
I'll upload my carvings as I finish them to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. If an image works particularly well, I will upload it to RedBubble, but this year I will be focusing more on display pumpkins than carving to the camera.
Before I start carving, I thought I would have a look back at my favourite carvings from the last three years.
I carve real pumpkins using U gouges and craft knifes. All the designs are my own.
20th
Toast the Tabby Cat, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
19th
Crail, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2020
18th
Pamela Coleman Smith, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2018
This was one of my first pumpkin carvings. It was my second attempt at the image, and I went on to win a carving competition with it. It was probably the carving that got me seriously interested in carving, and the reason I am now tired and in pain every October.
17th
Hedgehog, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2020
I had finished pumpkin carving for the year, when a friend of mine prompted me to enter a competition. Although this pumpkin was rotting, so I couldn't get the lighting right, it won me the competition :)
16th
Lobster, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2020
This image is on RedBubble here.
Last year I was so rusty when I started carving, it took me three goes to get this carving. But I finally got one I was happy with.
15th
St Monans Kirk, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
This image is on RedBubble here.
My first attempt at shaded images combining holes all the way through the pumpkin, trying to make the windows look like they were lit up with light coming from within the Kirk.
14th
French Horn, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2020
Trumpet, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black 2020
My niece plays the French Horn, so I thought I would have a go at carving one on a pumpkin, as I loved the way the tubes wrap around and form different layers. I thought I would do a whole brass section on one pumpkin, but started with the images being too small and abandoned the project. (The hedgehog ended up on the other side of this pumpkin.)
13th
Celtic Knot, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
This image is on RedBubble here.
I think celtic knots are my favouirite things to carve on pumpkins. As long as you have a clear stencil to work with and approach it methodically, very little can go wrong, and when you finish, you can photoshop the image to create some fantastic patterns in many different colours.
12th
11th
360 Celtic Knot, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2021
I have wanted to do an all over carve for a while, and as I had an early ripener in the garden, I took the opportunity to create a 360 celtic knot design. It looked great, but I was in agony after two solid days of carving, so I won't be repeating that again any time soon.
10th
Sunflower, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
9th
8th
7th
Hayden, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
Based on a photo by James Palmer
6th
Dory Logo, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
The Dory Bistro in Pittenweem kindly display my pumpkins in their window, so I thought as a surprise for them, I would do their logo.
5th
4th
3rd
Winter Tree, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
This image is on RedBubble here.
This pumpkin had started rotting when I started carving, so I thought I would choose an easy design. Unfortunately, it wasn't as easy as I thought and took me two days, during which, the pumpkin was going brown and soggy. This is why it is my only pumpkin photographed without the top on since I stopped using real tea lights.
2nd
Low Light on the Isle of May, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
This image is on RedBubble here.
This is actually my personal favourite carving, but the Pittenweem West Shore took about four times as long to carve and is much more popular, so I have let that one have first place.
1st
Pittenweem West Shore, Pumpkin Carving, Moti Black, 2019
This image is on RedBubble here.
I grew this pumpkin in my garden and the carve took two days. I've not managed to create something as large or as intricate since, but I hope to do a couple this year.
They are brilliant.
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