1 Wanting to get away from what I generally do, I was considering an Asian Dragon or a T-Rex. Asian dragons tend to be very detailed and much of that would be beyond my capabilities as a pumpkin carver, so i chose plan B. Here's my pumpkin and my reference material.
| 2 I drew a rough outline with a Sharpie. and got under way.
| 3 Many of the tools extreme carvers use are general kitchen implements. One of the most effective I've found is my cheese grater. That shaves off the hard outer skin. It also removes all my magic marker lines.
| 4 I've got a set of wood carver's tools that have come in very handy for this endeavor.
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5 Like carving wood, pumpkins also have a grain to them. Many times that will cause your tool to skew someplace othjer than where you intend to carve, making this a rather frustrating undertaking.
| 6 My sister found this set of tools at a craft store. They aren't all that great, but since they only see action once a year, they do have some value. Regular wood working tools will do many of the things necessary to carve an extreme pumpkin.I wouldn't suggest buying one of these sets unless you do an awful lot of pumkining.
| 7 The process is also quite messy.
| 8 I've gotten good use out of my Dremel moto-tool. I've not seen any other extreme carvers use these, but I cannot understand why. It's a great time saver!
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9 The teeth will be one thing that I'm not looking forward to tackling.
| 10 The butt end if where J-Rex's teeth will be, on one hand that's good, because since the skin is so thick there, it will allow me to make the rows of teeth without having to carve from the inside. But it's also a hindrance, because removing all that material is tedious work.
| 11 Once the skin is removed, a Sharpie will no longer write on the surface, so I had a hard time reading which pieces were to stay and which were to be removed.
| 12 Luckily, the teeth don't go all the way to where the jaw hinges.
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13 It's still a thankless job removing the pulp from the parts that remain.
| 14 I'm losing daylight, so I'm going to have to cut some corners to get this done in time for Trick-Or-Treaters to enjoy.
| 15 Not only is this messy, time-consuming and pointless, I also have a cold and my nose is running like a river after a three day deluges.
| 16 I'm going to call it quits and let it go like this. I hope the kids enjoy it.
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17 I put an L.E.D flashlight inside and that will save me the effort of running a hard wired line out the door.
| 18 Cleaning up the mess is another downside of this task.
| 19 I'm hoping it will look better once the sun goes down. I'm not impressed with this effort.
| 20 I'm cutting a square hole so it will sit flat and not teeter totter from side to side.
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21 It's not perfectly aligned, but it's a pumpkin, you can't expect anything else.
| 22 At least it kind of looks like a T-Rex.
| 23 The thickness of the bottom is a formidable obstacle to overcome. Many attempts to remove sections end up with me popping out the wrong piece.
| 24 The pulp is quite moist, so it is hard to mark which pieces remain and which are to be picked out.
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