I Spend Hundreds Of Hours Every Year Carving Pumpkins – Here Are My Tips For A Beginner

For the last 10 years I’ve been obsessed with Pumpkin carving, each year pushing myself to carve better pumpkins.

Along with working with brands to create bespoke Pumpkins, one of my main goals (via my YouTube channel) is to help others carve a better Pumpkin, in the below videos I’ve detailed just some of the tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years, but my three biggest tips are:

1. Use the right tools, I like to use Lino cutters & woodcarving chisels.

2. learn how to make a good stencil – I’ve given details instructions in the below video tutorial.

3. be patient and take your time! some of my pumpkin can take 20+ hrs to carve – focus on getting good first, speed will come later.

A couple of years ago I started getting approached by large brands to produce Pumpkins for them leading up to Halloween, this has snowballed over the last couple of years into a seasonal business, this doesn’t earn enough for me to give up my day job, but it does cover the cost of Christmas each year – which is most welcome!

I’m always on the lookout for UK carvers to join my growing network of Pumpkin carvers!

More info: youtube.com

1 minute Pumpkin carving tutorial

A very quick introduction to Pumpkin shading – the videos below go into much more detail

Baby Bird pumpkin carving

I Spend Hundreds Of Hours Every Year Carving Pumpkins - Here Are My Tips For A Beginner

This weird little baby bird carving took around 5 hrs to carve, I used a lino cutter and small wood carving chisels

How To Make a Pumpkin Carving Stencil (3 different ways)

This beginners tutorial details three different ways to make a pumpkin carving stencil

Jack in a Box Pumpkin carving

I Spend Hundreds Of Hours Every Year Carving Pumpkins - Here Are My Tips For A Beginner

This pumpkin took around 9 hrs to carve, i used a lino cutter and small woodcarving chisels – shortly after this photo I accidently dropped this pumpkin smashing it to tiny pieces, I very nearly cried!