Giant pumpkins Blaze and Twila carved at Pier B

By WDIO

Giant pumpkins Blaze and Twila carved at Pier B

Artists use giant pumpkins as their canvas.

The giant pumpkins Jerry Gibson grew in Sturgeon Lake and delivered to Pier B were carved on Friday.

Twila was his biggest, weighing in a 1,329 pounds. Blaze weighed 1,308.

First-time giant pumpkin carver Clayton Johnson took on Twila, and Mike Rudolph brought Blaze to life.

Johnson’s hobby is wood carving. He said it’s his way to unwind after a day of work as a scientist. And he translated those skills to pumpkins.

“When my son started getting able to talk, he expressed kind of the desire to carve pumpkins with me. So I thought, well, I carve wood, so why not?” Johnson said.

Mike Rudolph’s giant pumpkin carving. Carl Sauer/WDIO

It’s Rudolph’s third time carving Gibson’s pumpkins at Pier B Resort Hotel.

“For Halloween, you want an awesome jack-o-lantern, and I like spooky,” Rudolph said. “Spooky is my style for carving a giant pumpkin because that’s what I feel makes things fun for Halloween.”