Shrunken Head Bob Jack-O-Lantern With Collar Slots

From pumpkin to porch

1. 1

   Prep and transfer

   Clean, gut, and scrape the pumpkin interior in the face area to 2 cm. Transfer the full stencil with a pin tool, marking the face contour shallow-back zone, pupil bar roots, tooth roots, and the slot positions around the face. Use a bold marker to indicate which lines are full cuts versus shallow-back.

2. 2

   Shallow-back the outer face contour

   Use a gouge to shallow-back the outer face contour first, while all surrounding rind is still intact. Remove about half the rind thickness along this boundary line. The resulting shallow ridge separates the face from the surrounding rind visually without creating a fragile free edge.

3. 3

   Cut the eye openings with pupil bars

   Cut each eye opening around its broad pupil bar, which connects at the upper rim of the eye. The bar is the main retained element of each eye so cut toward it carefully from both sides. Each pupil bar should be at least 8 mm wide so it does not droop under its own weight over time.

4. 4

   Cut the nose and mouth with teeth

   Cut the nose opening as a small separate hole, then cut the mouth area around the retained teeth. Each tooth roots to the lip so cut between them from the top down, keeping each tooth base at least 1 cm wide. A blunt tooth tip is more durable than a sharp one over a multi-week display.

5. 5

   Add the hair and collar slots

   Cut the short hair slots above the face and the collar slots below it using a narrow detail saw. Each slot is a small separate opening isolated by solid rind. Keep at least 5 mm of rind between each slot and between any slot and the nearest face opening. Cut all slots in a single pass each.

6. 6

   Light and assess

   Insert an LED and check the design from the front. The shallow-backed face contour should glow dimly as a border around the brighter interior openings. If any slot appears too close to a face opening, stop and leave it rather than risking a structural crack to add one more slot.

Written with AI to match this design