19:35 GMT
Cachella Smith
Live reporter
We’ve just seen an excellently carved pumpkin for baby Lennox‘s dad Darren in Portsmouth, which took 30 minutes.
That sounds like a decent time, but it’s a far cry from the Guinness World record of 16.47 seconds, held by Steve Clarke since 2013.
“When I do the fast jack o’lanterns there’s nothing fancy
about them,” he tells me from Pennsylvania on Halloween morning.
“I try to keep all curves because that way I don’t have to
pull the saw in and out of the pumpkin.
“It’s basically – oval eyes, a teardrop nose and a smiley mouth.
“People ask me if I plan what I’m doing and I really don’t […]
they say go and I just start carving.”
He has three tips for novice pumpkin carvers:
1: Get yourself a proper pumpkin carving kit, he says, don’t
try to use a kitchen knife
2: Cut the bottom off the pumpkin not the top. It’s easier
both to clean and to put in a light
3: And one for the pros – if you’re tracing out a pattern by
poking holes into the skin, rub flour over the outside. It will fill in the holes
and make the outline easier to see
Here’s some of Steve’s collection:
Image source, Steve Clarke
Image source, Steve Clarke