10 Designs That Will Now Never Be Published
Extreme Pumpkins II represents the end of the line in pumpkin carving. It is my second book on the subject and I think the last. Between the two books I have publshed how-to's on 40 pumpkins. I doubt I will do any more.
That said, there were some designs that just missed the cut. I wanted to publish the list at the end of the second book, but the publisher suggested that we leave all doors to the future open:
This has got to be the end of the line for pumpkin carving books. Honestly, does the world need three of them? I don’t think so. I wasn’t even sure that we need two, but I cashed the check already and you are reading it, so it must have worked out. Anyway, here are all of the designs that I thought of, carved, or just sketched that never made the cut.
1. A terminator pumpkin. The terminator pumpkin was to be similar to the frankenpumpkin but with movie specific pieces and parts.
2. A pin-striped pumpkin. I like the pinstripe art of 50’s hot rods, but the overall idea wasn’t strong enough make the cut.
3. An Animal Trap Pumpkin: Turning a giant pumpkin into an entrapment device for animals and small children sounded cool, but never happened.
4. The bulging eyeball pumpkin: We covered this type of thing with the sneezing pumpkin. It wouldn’t be a huge leap to use the techniques presented in the sneezing pumpkin to make your very own bulging eyeball pumpkin.
5. Hot Dog Pumpkin: The first book had a hamburger pumpkin and this book may have had a hot dog pumpkin if your author hadn’t refused to carve it because he thought it was “girly”.
6. A pumpkin helmet: I really wanted to make a football helmet or a storm trooper uniform out of pumpkins for my son. I tried to make him a helmet but I made a measurement error. My deadline passed before I had a chance to get it right.
7. An exorcist pumpkin with rotating head: Listen, as much as I would have loved to show you a rotating, pea-soup spitting exorcist head, I just haven’t got the mental energy. Sorry dude.
8. A Pumpkin Punch Bowl: Although I figured that a pumpkin would be clean enough to drink punch out of, I doubt that my wife and friends would believe me. I let it slide.
9. The Chainsaw Pumpkin – A pumpkin that lost its battle with a chainsaw seemed like a good idea to me, but my editors in New York City sounded bored by it. Not a lot of chainsaws in the city. It made me wonder what would happen if you rode the subway with a chainsaw. I bet you would get a seat…quickly.
10. A Pumpkin Pinata for Adults to Hit: I like the idea of having a birthday party with a piñata, but piñatas are too easy to break. I thought using a pumpkin would make it more fun and harder to smash. It just didn’t look very interesting.
That said, there were some designs that just missed the cut. I wanted to publish the list at the end of the second book, but the publisher suggested that we leave all doors to the future open:
This has got to be the end of the line for pumpkin carving books. Honestly, does the world need three of them? I don’t think so. I wasn’t even sure that we need two, but I cashed the check already and you are reading it, so it must have worked out. Anyway, here are all of the designs that I thought of, carved, or just sketched that never made the cut.
1. A terminator pumpkin. The terminator pumpkin was to be similar to the frankenpumpkin but with movie specific pieces and parts.
2. A pin-striped pumpkin. I like the pinstripe art of 50’s hot rods, but the overall idea wasn’t strong enough make the cut.
3. An Animal Trap Pumpkin: Turning a giant pumpkin into an entrapment device for animals and small children sounded cool, but never happened.
4. The bulging eyeball pumpkin: We covered this type of thing with the sneezing pumpkin. It wouldn’t be a huge leap to use the techniques presented in the sneezing pumpkin to make your very own bulging eyeball pumpkin.
5. Hot Dog Pumpkin: The first book had a hamburger pumpkin and this book may have had a hot dog pumpkin if your author hadn’t refused to carve it because he thought it was “girly”.
6. A pumpkin helmet: I really wanted to make a football helmet or a storm trooper uniform out of pumpkins for my son. I tried to make him a helmet but I made a measurement error. My deadline passed before I had a chance to get it right.
7. An exorcist pumpkin with rotating head: Listen, as much as I would have loved to show you a rotating, pea-soup spitting exorcist head, I just haven’t got the mental energy. Sorry dude.
8. A Pumpkin Punch Bowl: Although I figured that a pumpkin would be clean enough to drink punch out of, I doubt that my wife and friends would believe me. I let it slide.
9. The Chainsaw Pumpkin – A pumpkin that lost its battle with a chainsaw seemed like a good idea to me, but my editors in New York City sounded bored by it. Not a lot of chainsaws in the city. It made me wonder what would happen if you rode the subway with a chainsaw. I bet you would get a seat…quickly.
10. A Pumpkin Pinata for Adults to Hit: I like the idea of having a birthday party with a piñata, but piñatas are too easy to break. I thought using a pumpkin would make it more fun and harder to smash. It just didn’t look very interesting.