I Carve Pumpkins Into Famous Faces (12 Pics)

Inspired by pumpkin-carving genius Ray Villafane, I started carving pumpkins  6 years ago. As pumpkins only tend to be in the shops for about a month in the UK, I don’t get much chance to practice most of the year and it feels a bit like starting from scratch every October, although I think I am slowly improving.

I work from a photo, so the main challenges are firstly just how deep the pumpkin will let you carve without breaking through the flesh, and secondly trying to convert a 2D picture into a 3D pumpkin—my pumpkins often look quite 3D from the front, but from the side, can look a bit flat.

I sometimes wish the pumpkins would last a bit longer when they’re finished, but the fact they are so temporary encourages me to carry on carving—if they didn’t rot, maybe I would have stopped after one I was particularly proud of, thinking I couldn’t do better next time...