Steve Dahlke of Rosemont has been a professional pumpkin carver for 15 years. Dahlke says it takes about 20 minutes to carve a pumpkin with a pattern and two hours for a larger gourd.
Dahlke says that when picking a pumpkin, remember:
Size matters. The best pumpkin to carve is generally a “basketball-size one or bigger.”
Smooth surface. “You don’t want ribbed ones because you can’t get a pattern onto it.”
Once you’ve collected and cleaned your pumpkin, Dahlke says it’s time to start the surgery:
Bottoms up. “Take a knife and cut the bottom off, instead of the top because [you want to preserve the] nice stem.”
Lighting. “If you’re going to use a candle, cut a small hole on the top [of the pumpkin, toward the back] as a chimney.”
After scraping seeds out, he suggests, trace a pattern from such companies as Pumpkin Masters, Halloween Works and SpookMaster.
Dahlke prefers to use carbon paper to trace the pattern on the pumpkin, “or you can use an adhesive spray, spray it on the pattern, press it on the pumpkin and cut through it. Or you can use a grease crayon, [which] usually comes with the patterns when you buy the carving set, [and] color the back of the pattern and trace it on the pumpkin.”
Dahlke says to keep a few things in mind:
– Be careful. “You don’t want to cut your fingers when using sharp knives.” And, of course, parents should be around to help when kids are carving.
– Freshen up. After your pumpkin is complete, Dahlke suggests using spray-on pumpkin preserver Pumpkin Fresh. “It makes the pumpkin last a little longer. Spray it on every other day, and it should [last] for a couple of weeks.”
After the pumpkin primer, Q had two more lingering questions for Dahlke:
– What happens to the seeds? He cooks the ones from the smaller pumpkins, and the “bigger ones get sent back to the growers for replanting.”
– Scary versus happy faces? “Scary. The way I carve, with the big monster ones, I’m able to get more detail work into the pumpkin.” In the end, “it’s up to the person.”
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– Dahlke will demonstrate carving from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 29 and 30 at the Brookfield Zoo, where he will tackle an 800-pounder and two 500-pound pumpkins. For more information about pumpkin carving, visit www.stevespumpkinart.com.
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