By Mark McConville
KICK START your Halloween celebrations with this series of incredibly intricate pumpkin carvings that will put your effort to shame.
Stunning pictures show the amazing pumpkins that depict everything from Elsa from Frozen to the band U2 and plenty in between.
Other striking shots show Terminator peering out, Negan from The Walking Dead and Freddy Krueger looking frightening.
The impressive artwork belongs to award-winning artist Alex Wer who works under the name The Pumpkin Geek.
He first began exercising his talent as a pumpkin carver in 2009 after his wife asked him to carve a pumpkin for her office. Thirty-five orders for custom logos later, and an ‘orange empire’ was born.
“My wife asked me to carve a pumpkin for her office Open House,” said Alex.
“I’ve always enjoyed carving pumpkins so I thought it would be fun. Since it was a few weeks until Halloween, my options were to carve a real pumpkin and have it die within a week, or try my hand at craft pumpkins which would last forever.
“It was a simple logo and script and was a big hit at the Open House. Soon I had about 35 orders for business logos and even children’s portraits. Not even knowing what I was doing, The Pumpkin Geek was born.”
Each pumpkin lasts forever as a ‘faux’ pumpkin is used to hand carve the portraits, while open flame is not advised to illuminate them.
Wer’s process, referred to as a “four colour” technique, involves carving at multiple depths: one completely cut out, two of differing levels, and another untouched layer for the darkest areas of the image.
When illuminated from within, an incredibly detailed image is revealed. Lately, Wer has introduced a fifth layer of carving to achieve further levels of detail. Each amazing design is hand carved and takes between four to six hours, depending on the complexity.
In 2013, Wer won the inaugural Geekie Award for Best Art/Craft. After this recognition, his career soared and he has since provided pumpkins for Netflix, ESPN, and Legendary Entertainment.
Today, Wer’s prodigious pumpkins are world famous and his clients include celebrities such as Gene Simmons, Busy Philipps, Jeri Ryan, Ming Na, and Joe Montegna.
