Return of the
Digital Pumpkin
The Ghost of Eraserhead

	Okay, so the carving is actually analog. And at six bucks, these tools are considerably more expensive than the 89 cent brass tube used on the previous pumpkin. But the examples look so much better, I thought I'd take a chance.
	First thing, lose the stupid stencils supplied and get a cool design. A screen shot of an appropriate subject will do nicely. So it's digital after all.
	Next, we need to convert it into a stencil. Simply put into a photo editor and convert to black and white. Don'y worry too much about fine detail, we'll be carving a pumpkin, not marble. Print the stencil expanded to a full sheet of paper.
	A tall barrel-shaped pumpkin makes it easier to tape down the stencil. Note that the corners of the stencil have been cut to allow the paper to lay flat against the curved pumpkin surface.
	With the stencil taped into place, each region to be cut out is traced by poking closely spaced holes around the edge.
	After all the regions have been traced with the hole puncher, the stencil is removed revealing the holes in the pumpkin surface. At this point, I abandoned the Pumpkin Masters tools. The drills and saws are intended to cut completely through the pumpkin shell. This imposes a restriction that the stencil cannot have "islands" (regions of uncut shell completely surrounded by cut shell). The supplied stencils meet this restriction, but my custom stencil does not (note that even if the right eye is bridged to the left, it may not support the weight).
	But as we'll see, it is not necessary to cut completely through the shell. So the next step is to use a small paring knife to "connect the dots". We only want to cut deep enough to penetrate the skin.
	After completely cutting around the region to be removed, the region is sliced into thin strips which can be lifted with the tip of the knife. After all regions have been cut away, you're left with shallow, uneven depressions. We'll want to deepen these to 1/2 inch (the shell is over an inch thick).
	A Dremel cutting tool is perfect for this task. Note the tool has cutting edges on top as well as sides. At the lowest speed setting, this tool will act as a Cuisanart and make mush out of the soft interior of the shell.
	A smaller tool is useful in tight corners.
	While cutting, the mush can be wiped out with a paper towel. After all the regions have been cut down to 1/2 inch depth, spray the pumpkin with water to rinse away the remaining mush.
	As shown here, we have our islands and there are no structural problems since we didn't cut completely through the shell.
	With half an inch of shell remaining, we'll need a strong light. But we don't want to cook the pumpkin, so a 26 Watt lamp installed in the drop light should suffice.
	Now all we have to do is turn off the room lights and switch on the droplight to reveal...
	The Ghost of Eraserhead R.I.P. Jack Nance 1943-1996