It's coming~~~~~cannot wait~ :eek:



The history of pumpkin first~~~ :tongue:



Without a doubt the most recognizable symbol of Halloween is a pumpkin carved into a jack-o-lantern. To understand the origins of how pumpkin carving began and what it really means we must first take a look at the holiday itself. How long has Halloween been around? Have there always been pumpkins carved? Here are some answers!

For most of the general population it is known as Halloween and is a night for dressing up, telling ghost stories, having spooky parties, trick-or-treating and pumpkin carving. What most people don't know is that Halloween is actually based on an ancient Celtic holiday known as Samhain (pronounced "sow wan"), which means "summer's end".
It was the end of the Celtic year, starting at sundown on October 31st and going through to sundown November 1st. It was a night to honor loved ones that had passed on since the veil between their realm and ours is at it's thinnest on that night.


Celebrated for centuries by the Celts of old, Witches and many other nature based religions, it is the most magical night of the year. It is the Witches' New Year, and the Last Harvest. Although the religious significance of it has passed for the general public, Halloween is a "magical" night for all!

On this magical night, glowing jack-o-lanterns, carved from turnips or gourds, were set on porches and in windows to welcome deceased loved ones, but also to act as protection against malevolent spirits. Burning lumps of coal were used inside as a source of light, later to be replaced by candles.
When European settlers, particularly the Irish, arrived in American they found the native pumpkin to be larger, easier to carve and seemed the perfect choice for jack-o-lanterns. Halloween didn't really catch on big in this country until the late 1800's and has been celebrated in so many ways ever since!


Pumpkins are indigenous to the western hemisphere and were completely unknown in Europe before the time of Columbus. In 1584, the French explorer Jacques Cartier reported from the St. Lawrence region that he had found "gros melons", which was translated into English as "ponpions," or pumpkins. In fact, pumpkins have been grown in America for over 5,000 years. Native Americans called pumpkins "isquotersquash."
Did you know that pumpkins are not a vegetable - they are a fruit! Pumpkins, like gourds, and other varieties of squash are all members of the Cucurbitacae family , which also includes cucumbers, gherkins, and melons

Selecting the pumpkins you'll carve for your Halloween Jack-O'-Lanterns is very important. You'll need to pick pumpkins according to what you want to carve on them.
Whether it's simply carving a pumpkin to sit on the door step or holding pumpkin carving parties and contests, this age old tradition is a main event for young and old alike.
X :biggrin:

Depending on the variety, pumpkins can range in size anywhere from tiny to humongous. Medium sized ones work best for most stencils that you'll make or buy. Very large pumpkins can be carved with elaborate designs and used as "center pieces" on your porch or tables. Small pumpkins work fine for carving traditional faces, they can be done fast and you can have many of them scattered about for parties, haunts or up your sidewalk as a lighted pathway.

Advance planning is the key to your pumpkin carving success


First, decide before buying your pumpkins what designs you will be carving into them. This will allow you to create a shopping list or at least a mental idea of the shapes and sizes of pumpkins you'll need.
For standard carving without a stencil, decide if it should be tall and narrow, or more rounded, based on your ideas. Select pumpkins that are uniformly orange meaning that are ripe, have no bruises, cuts or nicks.

If you will be using a stencil to carve your pumpkin, select a pumpkin that is large enough and as close to the same shape as the pattern you're going to carve. It should be as smooth as possible, and free of scratches, dents or gouges.
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Never carry a pumpkin by its stem; it may break. If it does break-off you can use toothpicks as a basic patch. Care should be taken not to bruise during transport or storage, as this will shorten their life-span.
If you find a perfect pumpkin but it's missing it's stem, have no fear! You can still use it! Just carve the bottom out for the opening the same way you would do the top. Then, you just sit your light source on the cleaned bottom piece and sit the pumpkin over it. Works great and you don't need the stem for a lid handle! :sun:

To carve a good Jack-O-Lantern, you need the right tools for the job! They have to be sharp enough, flexible, thin and sturdy.
Over the years we've collected, experimented with, altered or made a number of tools suited for our pumpkin carving tool kit.

Most of what you will need you may already have in your kitchen or can be purchased in the kitchen section at your local department store. The basics are listed below and generally won't cost you more that $25.00


Boning Knife: We use this long, thin bladed knife to cut the top hole and any large pieces out of the face of the pumpkin.
Modified Paring Knife: We took a small paring knife to the grinder to make a very thin bladed knife for detail work.


Sharpening stone: Knives work best when sharp, and are actually safer because they require less force to make the necessary cuts. We sharpen our knives before and often during our pumpkin carving. Be sure to follow the instruction that come with the sharpening stone.

Tools for transferring and cutting out paper stencil patterns.
Cutting Saw: This tool is essential for carving fine, detailed areas, but can be used for carving the entire Jack-O-Lantern. We like to use an X-Acto knife (No. 5 Knife Handle) with the keyhole saw (No. 15)

Poker Tool: This is used to transfer your designs onto the face of the pumpkin. An ice pick or nail can be used for this. An artist's Stylus tool makes a great Poker Tool and can be found at most craft and art supply stores.

Patterns: You can make these on your computer, download pre-made ones or buy them during the Halloween season in booklets.






Update
X-Acto now packages their own pumpkin carving kit!
The kit includes an X-Acto Heavy Duty Handle and Blade. 10 awesome templates and 1 adhesive sheet It also comes with a booklet with containing step-by-step instructions, the history of Halloween, pumpkin recipes and a guide for making your own templates. Watch for details!


Gutting Spoons: We use several different types and sizes of spoons for removing the seeds, pulp and skin from the inside of the pumpkin. An ice-cream scoop and a large metal ladle work great to scrap the inside of the pumpkin to remove the guts.
Utensils like the ones on the right are inexpensive and can be found at most department stores in their kitchen section. We've picked some up at our local dollar store for much less than other stores carry them. Shop around!


Tool Box: Something to keep all of your pumpkin carving tools in insures that they stay together and you can find them when the time comes. Toolboxes can be found at hardware and department stores. Our toolbox, pictured to the right, is large enough to hold all of our tools, templates and candles. It only cost ten dollars and best of all, it's orange!

Candles & Holders: We prefer the traditional use of candles to illuminate our Jack-O'-Lanterns. Votive candles, placed in clear glass candle holders are safer and last longer. Plain white candles give off the most light.
Remember, any fire, no matter how small or protected has the potential for becoming a large and potentially disastrous one. Fire safety should always be the number one priority. Never leave a lit candle unsupervised. Have a fire extinguisher readily available and see that everyone knows how to use it. Never leave children unattended with a lit pumpkin, candles or other source of fire.


X Tool Care: If you take good care of your carving tools they'll last a very long time, if not a lifetime.
Always clean your tools after you use them, and then store them all together for the next Halloween. Care should be taken not to bend knife blades or carving saw blades. Carving blades are very thin and sometimes brittle, and can be particularly subject to breaking.


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:tongue:

:smile:

you can design your own~~~~ :cocktail:

You can carve some truly beautiful and artistic pumpkins freehand, but if you want to create really detailed carvings you'll want to use a stencil. And all you'll need is a couple of extra tools to cut out the patterns.
Below is step by step photo-tutorial on how to carve your pumpkins from a stencil. The pattern we choose is an example of a very simple design, but you can do just about anything. Use your imagination and they'll come to life!

A Carving Saw is essential for carving fine, detailed areas, but can be used for the entire Jack-O-Lantern.
A Transfer Tool is used to transfer your designs onto the face of the pumpkin.

Carving Stencils can be drawn either freehand onto paper or use your computer to make your pattern.

Prepare the pumpkin as you would for basic carving, i.e. cut out the top hole and gut the pumpkin out. Select the paper stencil you want to use and trim the excess paper from it with scissors. Be sure to leave at least a 1/2 inch border for the tape to go on. :rose: :dog:
Attach the stencil to the face of the pumpkin with tape. Top first, then the bottom and lastly the sides. You may have to crease the stencil to tape the corners, if so, try to make the creases where the pattern will be distorted the least.

Using the Transfer Tool, press the pointed tip into and through the design lines on the paper stencil spaced about a 1/8 of an inch apart. Complex and thin designs might require the dots to be a little closer together.
The tip of the Transfer Tool should be pushed in just enough to go through the paper and the outer skin of the pumpkin, not all the way through the pumpkin.

It's important that you take your time when transferring the pattern from the stencil. Remember, you're making guide lines for sawing. Before removing the stencil, look it over carefully to make sure that all the lines have been transferred clearly. Once the paper stencil is removed you'll see the outline of the stencils pattern marked on the face of the pumpkin via little dots. Once you remove the stencil be sure to save it in case you need to refer to it while carving.
Using the Carving Saw, push the tip of the saw-blade into a pattern hole and saw through the design lines with short back-and-forth motions. Basically, you're playing "connect the dots".
It's important to remember that these are "saws", not knives. The saw is not used in the same way as a knife. You never cut with it, you saw with it. Take your time and follow the pattern edges carefully.

Always align the saw blade to make the cuts straight into the pumpkin. When making sharp corners, remove the saw and re-insert it at the new angle.
To make removal of the pieces easier you can cut them into smaller section while still in the pumpkin.

Then carefully push out all of the cut pieces with your finger or an un-sharpened pencil.

Once you've removed all of the cut pieces, carefully trim the inside edges of the pumpkin of any excess flesh with the Carving Saw or a small knife. We like to carve the excess off at about a 45 degree angle. This allows more light to come through, showing your design to it's fullest.
Remove any cut pieces that have fallen inside the pumpkin from your carving. Coat the edges with petroleum jelly. (See our pumpkin preserving page)

Your finished pumpkin should look like the one on the right. The silhouette, in this case a cat, should be clearly visible. When picking a design to use, make sure that it will be clear when finished. We tried a tombstone with hands clawing up, it looked cool but you couldn't tell what the hands were until you looked at it for a while. Adding a lit candle to it made it a bit easier to figure out.


SPOOK MASTER - AWESOME PUMPKIN STENCILS!
SpookMaster is a leading provider of online pumpkin carving stencils, with over 40 great patterns to help make your Halloween celebration the best ever.

:cool:

Depending on your local weather conditions during the month of October, a carved pumpkin can have a life span any were of from a week to only a day.
The best way to make a carved pumpkin last longer is to slow down the dehydration process and deter the on-set of mold. When pumpkins shrivel up, it's because they have lost moisture. You can usually restore them back to their original condition by soaking them in water overnight.
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X One technique is to coat all cut surfaces of the pumpkin with petroleum jelly immediately after carving. This includes a light coating of the entire inside of the pumpkin. If you can't do the whole inside, at least try to coat the design that you've cut.
The petroleum jelly acts as a barrier to seal in the pumpkins internal moisture to help slow down the dehydration process of the pumpkin. You can use a finger to coat the eyes, nose and mouth but you may want to use a paper towel with jelly on it to coat the inside. It's less messy that way.




Because of the amount of pumpkins we carve for Halloween, we usually carve most, if not all the pumpkins one or two days before Halloween. Because temperature, particularly heat, it is important to move the pumpkins to a dry, shaded area during the day. This will help to extend there life. If you have a spare refrigerator, you can empty it out and keep them in it over night to slow down decomposition.
Another way to keep them fresh is to use a pumpkin dip that is available at most grocery stores or stands that sell pumpkins during the Halloween season. Pumpkin dip is mixed with water in a large container and the pumpkins are submerged in it, sometimes over night, in order to preserve them. This is a tedious and messy way to keep your pumpkins fresh as you have to do it every night after they have been carved.

We have found a spray-on preserver called ........... Pumpkin Preserver! It's is a low cost, environmentally friendly product that impedes the deterioration of jack-o’-lanterns by deterring mold, rot and bugs. It contains all natural ingredients and comes in a convenient spray bottle for easy application. Just spray the inside and cut parts, let it drain if you spray too heavily and let dry. It really does work, we use Pumpkin Preserver on our pumpkins every Halloween.

:rolleyes:

The light used to illuminate the outside of the pumpkin and that of the candles inside is actually a delicate balance. Ideally, your photographs will want is to capture the candles glow from within the pumpkin, but still be able to see the outside of the pumpkin it's self.
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If you use a flash, you'll over light the surface of the pumpkin and drown out the light from the candles inside. First off, turn the flash on your camera off, you don't want it. To help avoid the light inside the pumpkin from being to faint, we use two or even three candles.

The best bet is to do one of two things.

The best technique is to take your pictures around dusk, before it becomes totally dark. Be sure to use a fast film, ISO 400 or faster is best.

Wait until dark, illuminate the outside of the pumpkin with in-direct artificial light, i.e. a lamp and light the candle(s) inside the pumpkin.


:tongue: :kiss2:

A Simple Eulogy

We are gathered here to pay homage to our dearly departed Jack O' Lanterns

Through out there short lives our Halloween Pumpkins

have brought both us and our Trick or Treaters much joy.

We now consign them to the earth where they first came.

May They Rest in Peace



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The day after Halloween usually marks the death of most Halloween pumpkin's and like any corpse they begin to decay, draw flies, smell and rot very quickly. It seems so heartless and cruel to simply toss them into a bag to be hauled off with the trash.

Those were our thoughts several years ago when my wife and I were about to dispose of our Jack O' Lanterns after Halloween night. Our solution to this regrettable situation was to create a new family tradition and provide them with a proper burial. In a small patch of earth in our backyard we dig a grave for our faithful pumpkins.

After placing them into the earth and covering them we give a short eulogy to show our appreciation and respect.

We think that the Great Pumpkin would be very impressed!

:frown: :redface:

挺好一南瓜~给我留着吃好不好~费糟尽~
唉~暴殄天物啊~善哉善哉~

啊。那么多工具啊。

哇赛那个刻了猫的太强了...我们department还有刻南瓜比赛呢...不知道会不会搞个展览什么的。

我们参加了~~哈哈~~结果么~
下次贴出来分享哈~


其实真的很容易的~~大家不妨动手试试看啊~~ :cool: