Finn the Leaping Dolphin

From pumpkin to porch

1. 1

   Pick and prep your pumpkin

   Choose a rounded pumpkin with one large, smooth face that has no deep ribs or soft spots. Wipe it clean and dry so tape will stick. A slightly taller-than-wide pumpkin gives the leaping dolphin room to arc across the front. Cut a lid or a bottom access hole and scrape the inside wall behind your design down to about one inch thick so light passes through easily.

2. 2

   Transfer the pattern

   Trim your stencil close and tape it flat against the pumpkin face, snipping the edges so the paper hugs the curve without wrinkling. Trace all the lines with a poking tool or pin, making dots every eighth of an inch along the dolphin outline and the wave curls. Peel the paper and connect the dots with a marker so you can see the full shape. Double check that the dolphin and the wave are joined into one continuous ribbon before you cut.

3. 3

   Open the wave first

   Start with the large wave and spray shapes at the bottom, since these are the biggest openings and give your hand room to work. Use a small saw tool held perpendicular to the surface and let it do the work with light strokes. Cut the interior curves before the outer edges so the piece stays supported as long as possible. Push each freed chunk out gently from the inside.

4. 4

   Carve the dolphin body and fins

   Move up to the dolphin, cutting the tail flukes and dorsal fin, then the broad body. Take the tight curve of the snout slowly with short, controlled strokes to avoid overshooting. Leave the narrow bridges of skin that connect the dolphin to the wave intact, since they hold the whole design together. Adults should handle all the sharp tools throughout.

5. 5

   Add the eye and skin-peel accents

   For the small eye, poke a shallow hole rather than a full cutout so it glows dimly instead of blasting light. Use a ribbon tool or the edge of a spoon to peel a thin layer of skin along the dolphin's belly or the wave foam for a softer mid glow. Go slow and shallow here, since peeling too deep will turn into an accidental cutout. Clean up any ragged edges with a paring knife.

6. 6

   Light it and photograph

   Drop in a cool white LED puck or string, never a candle, to get that moonlit ocean look. Set the light low and toward the back so it spreads evenly across the wave and up into the dolphin. Photograph at dusk on a step or table with the surrounding lights dimmed. If the glow looks patchy, thin the interior wall a little more where the light is weakest.

Written with AI to match this design