A professional pumpkin carver who brings “scary people” like Donald Trump And Vladimir Putin Two Life has said that his Halloween side hustle makes him thousands a year for two weeks of work.
Jamie Jones, 41, lives in Chester With his wife, Gemma, 39, and their two daughters, Penny, six, and AliceEight, discovered his passion for pumpkin carving at age 30, and proved his skills by practicing on 30 to 40 pumpkins each year “until his fingers bled.”
Instead of cutting shapes out of the pumpkin, Jamie uses a unique shading technique, shaving layers off the surface of the pumpkin to create a three-dimensional effect.
After winning a pumpkin carving competition at the York Maze in 2018, and winning £300, he launched his own carving business, Pumpkin Freak, in 2019, including logos for big-name brands such as Warner Bros. A commission was created.
Every October, Jamie takes two weeks of annual leave from his full-time job as an events and media sales manager to produce around 75 pumpkins – with designs featuring horror icons. PennywiseFreddy Krueger, The Terrifier and even infamous figures like Jeffrey Dahmer.
His business has an annual turnover of between £10,000 and £20,000 with £4,500 covering costs and £5,000 going to him this year, the first time he has taken a cut – because of this, he It has been worth it for Christmas.
Jamie told PA Real Life: “This year I wanted to practice carving a face and, quite frankly, I found both of them, Putin and Trump, terrifying people, so I thought, ‘I I will stick them on the pumpkin’.
“It was a bit of a trend a few years ago, with Trump relatives, so when I realized he was running again this year, I thought: ‘This is the year.’
“My main goal, though, is for it not to feel like a chore and a job.
“Going forward I want to do lower commission but higher value work that I can be passionate about and put a lot of effort into rather than just putting out a company logo.”
Jamie has always been “into drawing and painting” but didn’t discover his love of pumpkin carving until he was 30.
While hosting a family Halloween party, he decided to carve a few pumpkins for decorations and was instantly captivated, realizing “how creative you can be”.
Over the years, Jamie’s designs have become more complex, inspired by the American TV show Halloween Wars – where teams of cake sculptors, sugar artists, and pumpkin carvers compete to create the ultimate Halloween display.
He explained: “I start with a stencil from something I’ve made or a photo.
“I’ll print it out and use transfer paper or draw on it, and then the tools I’m using are basically a lino cutter in a few different sizes and a hand-carved wood chisel. , and micro chisels, which have very fine points.
“And then the principle behind it is quite simple – you’re not cutting all the way through the pumpkin, you’re just shaving to different depths.
“So the bright spots are cut deep into the pumpkin, and I often use cross-hatching to scratch the pumpkin, and it’s all about going slowly.”
To practice, Jamie would carve 30 to 40 pumpkins each year, “until his fingers bled”.
In 2018, a friend asked him to carve a pumpkin with his company’s logo for £50, sparking the idea to turn his hobby into a business.
That same year, Jamie won a pumpkin carving competition at York Maze, where he won £300 by carving beetle juice onto a pumpkin.
He used the prize to launch his own business, Pumpkin Freak, in 2019, creating a website to promote his work.
Within the first year of business, Jamie was “surprised” to partner with brands like Warner Bros. and Pets at Home, carving pumpkins with their logos to use at events and on their social media pages.
Since 2019, he has taken two weeks of annual leave each October to focus on carving, with colleagues and loved ones being “very supportive”.
Jamie said: “My wife is suffering – I couldn’t do it without her, because it takes so long to trim them, she has to look after more children.
“My kids are a bit desensitized to it, they’ve grown up with it happening every year so I think they think everyone is so crazy about pumpkins!”
He now sells about 75 pumpkins each season, which he receives as a gift from a local farm.
His business has an annual turnover of between £10,000 and £20,000, and he has already put some money into the business – £4,500 this year has gone to cover expenses such as hiring people to help him trim. hiring, and £5,000 has gone to him. .
He said: “I can pay for Christmas with it, which is amazing, and I always said if I could pay for Christmas by carving a few pumpkins I’d be happy.”
Jamie has also recruited four other cartographers, whom he met through a Facebook group for cartography enthusiasts, because the designs can take anywhere from seven to 27 hours to complete, depending on the complexity.
To date, his favorite carvings include Pennywise from Stephen King’s IT, and this year, he created pumpkins featuring political figures like Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
“I’ve done Pennywise four times now. I started in 2016 and I’ve done one this year so looking at the progress of all four, the year-on-year improvement has been quite satisfying for me,” he said. Explained.
“I’ve also been practicing a lot of portraiture this year – I’m quite happy with the penguins I did, and the Putin one was fine too.
“I was really unhappy with the Trump move that I did. I think it looked like a weird hybrid of Trump and Kim Jong-un, so it’s probably my least favorite, I definitely. I want to be better than that.”
His creations are well received online, and he displays about eight pumpkins on his front lawn, attracting locals who often stop to take photos.
For those wanting to try their hand at pumpkin carving, Jamie recommends a lino cutter for detailed work, and says “the most important thing is patience”.
To preserve his pumpkins, he washes them in a solution of water and bleach. Once they begin to rot, he leaves them at the bottom of his garden for the local wildlife to enjoy, scavenging the seeds for the squirrels.
To learn more about Jamie’s creations, visit: www.instagram.com/pumpkinfreakart And www.pumpkinfreak.co.uk.