carved butternut squash skull

Everyone, meet Gord!  For the holiday,  I’ve carved this Halloween skull lantern out of a butternut squash, with a chunk leftover for some scrumptious soup (my fave kind of all time, not just du jour!).  Yes, I do love pumpkins.  But, of all gourds, butternut squashes are tops.

There’s no better shape for a carved skull than the butternut squash.  It is bulbous, hollow in the bulb (perfect place for a tea light), and has a narrow shaft (appropriate shape for the jaw line).

This is my second go at butternut squash carving, all done with my trusty paring knife.   Last year, my carved butternut squash flower centerpieces took half the effort and a fraction of the time as this one lone skull.

I figure it will be a challenge to explain the process into words, so I’m going to skip the long-winded tutorial and leave you with step-by-step pictures only (there is some interpretation to be left in between steps).

The key steps are towards the end of the process.  It is important that the sides of the squash be sliced off and the forehead shaved down to a flatter shape, otherwise the skull will look more like an alien.  I realize my skull balloons last week are looking like aliens…I must do something about that…