Carving Pumpkins, Halloween 2010: Templates Are For Suckers

I love Halloween, always have. One of my favorite things about Halloween is carving pumpkins. I never use a template; I prefer to come up with my own crazy designs.

This year, I found a really great pumpkin at Clancy’s over in the Inner Sunset. He was a squatty little fella with a unique shape, like he already had a face before I even started taking pieces out of him. I almost wanted to leave him as-is. Almost…

Angelica and I had a small pumpkin carving party at our place last night. I went to work on Mr. Spooky Jack O’Lantern, capitalizing on his interesting natural shape. I used a narrow blade and a small scraper for removing surface material. The wire is simply paperclips I cut to length and bent to fit.