Pumpkin Pin

It's the season for pumpkins. Not just plain pumpkins, but carved pumpkins.
And not just carved pumpkins, but carved wood pumpkins.
Whittling a small "Jack-o-lantern" can be great fun, and giving them away is even better. Put either a pin back or a tie-tack post on the back and they make great pins. These are very popular, so you'll want to do several.

An easy way to do several is to whittle them in the round and them split them in half. Start out with a 3/4 or 1 inch by 4 inch piece of Basswood. Whittle a not quite round ball on one end. Not quite round because it's a pumpkin. Use your knife to make a series of very shallow slices from the top to the bottom of the "pumpkin". Open the slices (segments) up a bit and round over areas between them.  On opposite sides of the pumpkin make triangle cuts for the nose and eyes, and remove those chips. Make a curved slice cut for the mouth, and open it up a bit. Use the scrollsaw to split the pumpkin into two, with a face on each.  Drill a small hole in the top of each pumpkin half for the stem.  Paint the pumpkin pin orange, the stem green, and the eyes, nose and mouth black.  Finally, attach the pin back.  Pretty easy huh!