There are 5 steps to be taken for this process and they are:
1. Choosing a pumpkin. when it comes to choosing a pumpkin, one should select a pumpkin that is free of cuts, nicks and bruises. The colour of the pumpkin should be consistent all round and the pumpkin should be ripe. to know if the pumkin is ripe, thump on the skin of the pumkin. If you hear a hollow sound, then the pumkin is ripe. The size of the pumkin is dependant on how you want to make the carvings. Therefore, one should put in mind that a larger pumpkin means more work. …show more content…
Developing the design to be put on the pumpkin. In this step, one has to choose which method he or she desires for carving the pumkin. This step is crucial since it determines what tools are required. Some of the designs include;
a) The traditional jack-o'-lantern- which involves cutting out of the mouth, eyes and nose if need be.
b) The daytime jack-o'-lantern-this a design for those who do not want to light the pumpkin. In this case, one carves down the pith using an x-acto knife to scracth away the pumpkin's skin. For this design, one is adviced not to carve all the way into the gourd.
c) The silhouette- which involves picking of a shape and then carving out the negative space around the shape and finally carving out the features such as the eyes or mouth.
d) The bas-relief- this one of the most complicated designs since it requires one to carve down all the way to the pith in other designs while in some designs one is required to carve through to the gourd while leaving some parts