Wayne Arts Council helps pumpkin carvers create ghouls from gourds
By Kirsten Ballard
Published in News on October 31, 2014 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Annie Hutchins, left, and her niece Naja Spencer, 8, concentrate on carving their jack-o'-lantern at the arts council carving party on Thursday evening.
Alora Stanton grimaced as she plopped a pile of pumpkin guts onto the table.
"It feels gross," she said.
It was her first time carving a pumpkin.
Alora is a huge fan of pumpkin pie, but she less than impressed with the innards of the squash she brought to the Wayne Arts Council pumpkin carving party last night.
"It looks like spaghetti noodles," she said.
She decided to carve a toothy, traditional jack-o'-lantern.
The Arts Council offered all of the fun and none of the work at their annual pumpkin carving event.
A dozen families gathered around the plastic wrapped tables to carve pumpkins.
The Arts Council provided scrapers, chisels and carving saws to aid the process, and families brought in pumpkins and a $3 donation.
Sarah Merritt, Arts Council director, had a variety of stencils and designs for the carvers to use.
She encouraged carving wide, straight shapes to make it easier.
"If you make them too small, it's going to be hard to cut them out," she said.
Camilla Frederick brought her family of six to the Arts Council.
"We hadn't done this at our house, and I thought this would be so much easier," she said.
For many, it was their first time carving.
Jo Morris, owner of Jojo's Tea and Coffee Shop, helped her niece and nephew gut pumpkins for the first time.
Ms. Morris helped her nephew, Zander Morris, carve his "half cat, half monster" pumpkin.
Ian Merritt, 7, Mrs. Merritt's son, is a pumpkin carving expert. He believes a good pumpkin is all in the details.
Ian's monster pumpkin - named "Torture" - feasts on a smaller pumpkin and sports two shiny, red devil horns made of red peppers.
"You take the stem off the pepper and use toothpicks and just stick it in. It's like devil horns," he explained.
"Torture" is topped off with plastic scorpions and spider rings balanced carefully around his stem and another detailed touch of eyebrows.
"It's scary," Ian said.
The Halloween fun will continue downtown with a screening of "Hocus Pocus" at the Paramount Theatre Nov. 1 at 7 p.m.