A professional pumpkin carver has shared her top tips for carving the perfect pumpkin this Halloween - and why you shouldn't light a tealight inside it. Szimonetta Zombori, 30, works all year round as a professional fruit artist - but Halloween is her favourite time of the year.
The mum-of-two carves intricate designs on pumpkins - including well-known faces such as Mona Lisa and Frankenstein's Monster - for up to £200 per design. Szimonetta from Bournemouth, Dorset, said you should never 'just wing it' when it comes to your design - and should map it out first to get the best result. The artist also warned against an easy mistake people make - putting a real lit tealight in your pumpkin.
She explained people don't realise this can actually start to cook the pumpkin so it goes off faster - and the best thing to do is to get a small LED tea light instead. Sisi, a mum-of-two, said: "For me, when coming up with a design I always look around me and see if I can find something for inspiration. I always try to find challenging designs to try out for myself each year.”
