Cathy Dunbar isn’t yet sculpting pumpkins for the season when I reach her at home in Hantsport, N.S. She and a friend also make fidget quilts — small, customized quilts with stimulating activities on each one — for donation to dementia patients. For the past several years in early October, Cathy takes up position outside Stirling Farm Market, in Greenwich, N.S., sculpting pumpkins with unique and intriguing designs. Stirling’s market provides the pumpkins, and sells the carved art to raise money for a charitable organization such as the Alzheimer Society of Nova Scotia.
“Nothing I have ever done in my life explains why I am artsy-fartsy,” Cathy laughs. Recently retired from years of bookkeeping for local businesses, she has lived in Hantsport for most of her life, together with husband Ian. Her interest in pumpkin art piqued when she found a kit in the U.S. from a company called Pumpkin Masters.
Cathy explains the difference between carved and sculpted pumpkins.
“I carve pumpkins too, but what I do at Stirling’s is sculpting. A carved pumpkin, you gut it and carve through the pulp. A sculpted pumpkin usually is not gutted and the pattern is carved on the outside of the pumpkin, not all the way through.”
She also says she doesn’t create her own patterns freehand but buys all sorts online. She has kits from Pumpkin Masters for every year since 1997, but also gets them from Stoneykins and from the Pumpkin Lady. Some are free, others come in packages of dozens for only a few dollars.
Recent years have seen new varieties and colours of pumpkins beyond basic orange. Green and white pumpkins don’t have enough contrast when you cut into them, so Cathy prefers orange gourds, and she likes medium sized pumpkins over very large ones.
“I don’t care what shape the pumpkin is, I’ll make it work” so long as it sits flat on the ground and won’t roll away, she adds. Most squash are very hard and won’t carve well with the tools she uses. Plus, “I have enough pumpkins to do, I don’t need more items to try!”
Cathy’s favourite tool is a V-groove cutter, and she also uses a scraper to smooth the pumpkin after sculpting. The love of sculpting pumpkins as a fundraiser began in 2020, when COVID restrictions had Cathy feeling cooped up.
“This was something I could do outside. It got me away from the house” — where she also sewed some 5,000 masks. “Boring is not part of my vocabulary,” she chuckles.
Cathy has plenty of Thanksgiving patterns, so she starts her gourd art in early October and goes through until just before Halloween. Weather is the biggest challenge in carving and sculpting pumpkins — our region has a lot of humid tropical weather in September and October that can affect how long a sculpted pumpkin will last.
Cathy estimates she threw out around 40 sculptures last year because they started to mildew. Despite that, she carves more than 100 for sale each year, making plenty of happy customers.
Cathy doesn’t sculpt her pumpkins all the way through, so they keep better than those that have been hollowed out to hold candles or other light sources.
There are recipes that are supposed to deter moulding, but the best option she’s found is petroleum jelly, which keeps the moisture from getting to the sculpted area. Once the pumpkins are dried, they won’t mould.
Want to try your hand at sculpting?
Choose your pumpkin, preferably with a flat surface to trace the pattern. Cathy prints her patterns then trims the paper as close to the pattern as she can, to hopefully have it lay flat as she secures it with masking tape. Next, make dots about 1/8 of an inch (3 millimetres) apart across the pattern, then remove the pattern and connect all the dots, using the printed version for guiding.
After that preparation, it takes 30 to 45 minutes to carve the gourd. Along with her sculpting tool, Cathy also has an engraving tool, which she uses for fine work, such as scripts on logos. The most popular patterns? Cats, with Bessie the cow a close second.