Silence of the Squash

We submitted a pumpkin this year for the annual Carve for a Cause that benefits Architects without Borders (more info here).

Last year, we did the artichoke lamp, but were disqualified for using too much "non-pumpkin" material:

For those who don't know what I'm referring to, here's a picture of the artichoke lamp:

So, this year, we decided to step up our game. Our interior designer came up with the idea of doing a pumpkin modeled after Silence of the Lambs or making something out of pumpkin skin. After a brainstorming session, Silence of the Squash was quickly formulated. Hours and hours went into steaming the squash, scooping out the insides (you can image how quickly you can get sick of squash for every meal), and getting the skin ready to be sewn together.

Here is the pumpkin in progress:

Surprisingly, it only took us about 3 hours to sew everything together and put nails in strategic places to hold the skin in place. The next evening, we headed down to Design Within Reach to see the competition. There were some incredible entries.

After mingling at the event, they announced the winners and our pumpkin won Judge's Choice this year! After the competition, they auctioned off all of the pumpkins, which was a good way to help raise more money.

Not sure what we're going to do next year, but we're going to have to come up with something really good to top this year's entry!