I haven’t talked about pumpkin carving for many years. Not because I don’t like them anymore, it is actually because I love all the creative carving art on pumpkin but feel sorry when they wilt away. I kindly hope there is a way to save the carved pumpkin forever. And today, I came across an article talked about Alex Wer, the one pumpkin carving artist who started to carve on aux craft pumpkins to make them last forever. At one second, I thought, woo, my wish comes true. But when I started to look at Wer’s carved work, I started to have mixing feeling.
First, I have to admit Wer’s work is impressive. Each hand-carved sculpture features an incredible amount of detail. To achieve this, the artist developed his own “4 color” carving technique, involving cutting and carving different layers to create depth. “1 area is completely cutout, 2 different levels of depth, and finally, a layer untouched for the darkest portion of the image,” explains Wer. Most of his works are inspired by movie characters and pop culture icons. Each pumpkin can take up to 6 hours to complete, depending on the complexity of the design.
When you scroll down to see his work, you might think yeah, that is pretty nice. But after scrolling a bit, you might start to think something doesn’t seem right. But what is not right? After staring a while, I found the reason. But all the faux pumpkin are exactly same shape and size, that standardized specs take away one of the important features from pumpkin. For a real pumpkin, artist carves around its shape and texture. But for the faux one, there is no such thing. All the sudden, I just feel a bit sad like the hand-carved pumpkin isn’t that unique anymore.
Anyway, that is just my feeling. But I have to admit, if you just want an awesome looking, hand carved pumpkin that can last forever, you should pay a visit to Wer’s site. For me, I probably will still carve the triangle eyes and crooked smiles pumpkin with my kids. Dirty our hands with pumpkin seeds and enjoy the natural smell.
