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The Food Network’s ‘Outrageous Pumpkins’ judge Terri Hardin shares her sculpting tips
Pumpkins are a billion-dollar business in the U.S. Their sweet, earthy aroma has found its way into everything from breakfast cereal to hand cream, but much of the fresh fruit sold this month will end up on porches with two eyes and a candle inside.
The contestants Terri Hardin judged on five seasons of the Food Network’s Outrageous Pumpkins attacked gourds with chainsaws, grinders and sanders to craft a crop of prize-winning jack-o’-lanterns up to 6 feet tall for the TV competition show. Back home in Burbank, Hardin is a veteran Muppeteer for the Jim Henson Co. and has worked on numerous rides and attractions as a Disney Imagineer. This time of year, the artist shares her pumpkin expertise through videos and a line of customized tool kits. She even takes on a limited number of students at her home studio for a master class in the art of pumpkin sculpting. We asked her for tips on tackling the calabaza.
Credit: Irvin RiveraQ: What’s the difference between carving and sculpting?
A: The jack-o’-lantern type is carved, meaning you’re cutting a full-on hole. You punch through and the light is a hot yellow. With sculpting, you take the skin off and carve the flesh. You’re playing with various thicknesses, creating different hues, from rosy colors to fiery oranges depending on how close you are to the light inside.
Q: What kind of pumpkin is best for sculpting?
A: You can go out and get an orange pumpkin from the grocery store, but those are evil. There’s a breed that grows like celery and if you catch a thread, it can rip your pumpkin in two. If you go to a patch where they’re growing, they can tell you the variety. If you dream of a big pumpkin, you could ask for a Big Mac, which starts at about 100 pounds. The stem of a Wolf pumpkin looks like a sequoia tree – and that’s a fun one if you want orange. Walmart happens to have a really nice pumpkin called the Ghost. It has a smooth white surface like a casaba melon and it’s about the size of a basketball; that one is easy and fun to carve. Some people use butternut squash. I had one 2 ½ feet long and thought, “Wouldn’t this make some nice horns or nice tentacles?”
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Q: What’s your class like?
A: I ask [students] to bring a picture of what they want. Jack Skellington is a really good one to start with or maybe I’ll do Godzilla. We once did a howler monkey in a little hat. You draw the lines but don’t cut them out. You scribe on the surface and shave off the eyes, nose and mouth so that it looks like a creature in a pumpkin mask. Some of my classes hold me to a two-hour window, and other times we’ll do it until God turns the lights out. Some students take hours just because it’s so much fun.
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Chris Nichols
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