October is a time of change, traditionally the time for harvest and to look back over the summer and prepare for the winter ahead. It’s also half term for families, who may be looking for things to do with the kids and fun activities for families to do together.
Canterbury Cathedral contacted us nice and early in the year as they wanted something to complement their half term harvest events. A great idea is pumpkin carving, the large squash have been growing all summer and getting fat and juicy and are to be found everywhere in autumn. Carved pumpkins fill the windows of homes, shops and businesses alike and everybody is keen to have a go at pumpkin carving for themselves.
Canterbury Cathedral is an ancient site of pilgrimage and every year almost a million people come to marvel at it’s history, beautiful architecture and attend church services. The spires and architectural features are dotted with carvings of gargoyles and grotesques, so we thought it would be fun to make a 3D carved pumpkin of one of the gargoyles that are found clinging to the walls of the cathedral and see if visitors could spot which one we had made a pumpkin carving of.
We also filmed our professional pumpkin carver Jamie Wardley at work, and made a time lapse and a how to pumpkin carving video for Canterbury Cathedral’s website and social media. Jamie showed viewers how to carve a pumpkin, gave tips on how to pick your pumpkin, how to get started and what tools to use when pumpkin carving.
You can use many objects found around the home to carve a pumpkin, but if you want to get serious about pumpkin carving and try to make a 3D pumpkin it’s a good idea to buy some tools – these can be found easily and relatively cheaply in craft shops or on the internet.
Another good idea is to have a mirror handy, then you can get inspiration by pulling a silly face! See how similar to a gargoyle you can make your face – and your pumpkin.
This was all carved, shot and edited in the Sand In Your Eye studio in Yorkshire and the films delivered to Canterbury via the magic of the internet.
Pumpkin season is great for clients who can tell us exactly what they want, sit back and let us do all the work at our studio. Pumpkins can then be delivered by courier, or if like Canterbury Cathedral, you just want images or a film, we can shoot and edit those together and it’s even easier! We get very busy around October and Halloween so it is a good idea to contact us as early as summer and have a chat about your ideas, just like the cathedral did.
Thanks to Nathan Crouch at Canterbury Cathedral.
