Halloween, Samhain, the day of carved pumpkin lanterns, is approaching, and for the third year in a row, I’m preparing mine. I admit it’s taking much more work than I thought, and I’m starting to think I’ve aimed too high.
Yesterday, I was about to give up because of how it looked and decided I couldn’t dedicate more time to it. But today, I’m eager to make some tweaks and try to improve the most botched area, which is the top part, that sort of helmet characteristic of the Alien. I’ll reposition it to make the face and that part come together in a way that looks more “natural” and not as forced as it does now. The video will still take a few days, but here are some photos of the part of the pumpkin I’m most pleased with, the mouth. Here’s my version of Jack’O Alien.
You can also see my versions of Halloween pumpkins from previous years.
After a bit more work, I managed to reposition the Alien helmet, although it didn’t turn out exactly as I wanted. I still think I aimed too high with this Halloween lantern.
I also had trouble lighting the lantern because the pumpkins I used are quite large, and a simple candle doesn’t do much. I needed to put a large candle inside the mouth and four small tea candles on the wooden support seen in the video. I had to deepen the triangular eye holes carefully until only the skin of the pumpkin remained. Even then, the amount of light emitted wasn’t as much as in previous years’ pumpkins. But I must admit that the photos where Jack’O peeks out from a dark background with glowing eyes turned out pretty well.
Regarding the wooden supports, in the video, you’ll see I put one behind the pumpkin to prevent it from falling backward. You’ll also see the wooden support I mentioned for the tea candles. It consists of two pegs stuck into the pumpkin reaching the wooden base and a small board between them to keep them in place and prevent them from moving together, as the main function of this inner support is to hold the top pumpkin acting as the helmet.