Jimmy Good Toad's Hobbies page

	Boys and Girls Clubs
	of Greater Nashua

2008 Fall Session - Pumpkin Class - Litchfield

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This is one of 3 pumpkin classes I am teaching. 2 of them are with the Boys & Girls club and a 3rd is for the town of Peabody, MA. If you are interested in this technique you can check out my personal pumpkin page by clicking this link.

The Litchfield class is a 5 week class so the schedule is a bit different than the Merrimack class (6 weeks). One problem that we have had to deal with over the years is pumpkins rotting before we finish carving them. This year this is a bigger concern as the weather has been warmer and the pumpkins are not of the best quality due to high moisture during the later growing season. For this reason I retooled the schedule to allow for the quickest carving time.

Week 1 we learned the technique and the tools used. The kids were shown how to transfer patterns to the pumpkin, how to carve lines and curves as well as large areas using wood carving chisels.

Week 2 we practiced on "junk pumpkins" so that the kids would get experience using the tools on real pumpkins in the hope that they learn a bit more about technique before cutting into their real pumpkins. We also spent part of this day thinking about the design we wanted on our final pumpkins

Week 3 we finished our design ideas and the kids received their final pumpkin. We spent the day drawing (transferring) our designs to the pumpkins. The technique of transferring patterns to pumpkins is an important one so even if kids wanted to free-hand a design I had them free-hand it on paper to transfer to the pumpkin. That way then knew the technique and had experience with it.

Week 4 we began carving our pumpkins! I carved one for the farm who donated the pumpkins and the kids all worked on theirs.

Week 5 we will complete our pumpkins, gut them and get them lit up. I hope to have a slew of pictures of that too, so stay tuned!

3 of our Litchfield kits with their practice pumpkins. This 5 week program (2 hours per week) begins with a day of learning the technique and tools for my unique type of carving. The 2nd week we each get a practice pumpkin and get to explore the use of the tools and techniques talked about.

During the 3rd week we received our final pumpkins and the kids drew out their patterns. Here we are in week #4 where we have begun carving them.

Here you can see the pattern drawn on the pumpkin as she carefully uses the sharp tools needed to carve the pattern out.

In many cases this was the first time these kids used tools like X-Acto knives and it was certainly the first time they ever carved pumpkins like this!

Here you can see his scary face taking shape

Some of the patterns were simple, some complex.

Teaching the use of wood carving chisels, I had to interrupt here to show her the proper way to hold and use the tool.

This young girl has the technique down pat and is on her way to a simply beautiful pumpkin!

An example of a simpler design that will result in a beautiful pumpkin

Here they are all lined up waiting for next week. Next week we will finish our carvings then we will gut and light the pumpkins for all the kids

I carved this one as a special thank you to McQuesten farms who donated the pumpkins we used in this class.

Here is what it looks like lit. This carving method produces dramatic results each and every time!

The farm loved the pumpkin and proudly put it on display at their farm stand.

An example of how well these kids are doing with this class. Even conventional looking pumpkin art looks good with this technique!

And the kids are proud of their work, as they should be!

Due to rain we're indoors this, our last week. Everyone is working hard and glad to be warm and dry...

Working hard or hamming for the camera, everyone was having a good time!

First pumpkin carved and lit up! You should have seen the looks on everyone's face when they saw the effect on THEIR pumpkins!

Second pumpkin complete. Good job!

The proud pumpkin carver!

We even helped Juliana carve a more conventional pumpkin, much to her delight! We couldn't light it as we can't use candles here...

A cute little devil in sneakers no less.

And another proud pumpkin carver

Alvin of the Chipmunks. very cool!

She did an incredible job on Alvin. She really got the technique down pat.

Scary faces always look good for Haloween!

Even if that scary face is the pumpkin carver himself!

I can never resist a desire to pose :)

A moose looks just right in New Hampshire!

Wishing he had more time to do more of his moose surrounding, he is still proud of the work he DID get done!

What would Halloween be without a good skull!

A little sleepy, it seems, but after all that work what can you expect of a pumpkin carver!?

Another little devil pumpkin

and her proud owner!

Another request for a posed shot is never refused!

And this is the full result. I certainly hope that these kids take these lessons home and carve more pumpkins before Halloween. The more they do the better they will get at this most unique art form!

That's it for the Litchfield pumpkin class! Till next September here's wishing you all a most scary Halloween!