Ray Villafane’s Pumpkin Carvings for Halloween 2013

Our Halloween favorite, Ray Villafane is back, and he and his gourd-geous jack-o’-lanterns will appear at the New York Botanical Gardens October 19 and 20.

We learned about Ray from a savvy friend back in 2010, and since that time his pumpkin-carving business has, literally, exploded!

Using traditional clay ribbon loops to painstakingly shave features into these ordinary gourds yields extraordinary results in the hands of Ray Villafane. Other tools, such as paring knives and x-acto knives are used for deep gouges and detail work, respectively.

Ray first began carving pumpkins as a lark for his art students in a small rural school district in Michigan. What started as a whim turned into a career as Ray’s videos went viral, unleashing his inner passion for pumpkins! Read what Beauty Shall Save the World has to say about Ray in these articles from our archives!

Halloween Pumpkin Carvings as Art

Ray’s website illustrates, step by step on a real pumpkin, how he concocts the eerie faces.

Halloween Weekend Project 101: Carving Your Pumpkin

Magnificently menacing, ghoulishly grand, or absolutely absurd, Ray’s creations are infinitely imaginative and make a great weekend project!

Have a hauntingly hilarious Halloween this year with the help of Ray and his team of elite carvers!