Pumpkin carver's 'terrifying' Trump portrait goes viral

A pumpkin carver who creates portraits of "terrifying people" has become a viral hit for depicting the likes of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Jamie Jones, 42, from Capenhurst, Chester, started pumpkin carving 12 years ago and honed his skills by practising on 30 to 40 pumpkins each year "until his fingers bled".

Jamie creates three-dimensional designs by shaving layers off the pumpkin's surface rather than cutting shapes out of it.

Despite working full-time as an events and media sales manager, he can earn up to £20,000 a year from his Halloween side-hustle, and launched his business, Pumpkin Freak, in 2020, going on to work with brands including Pets at Home and Warner Bros.

His designs have also featured horror icons such as Pennywise, Freddy Krueger, as well as notorious figures including Jeffrey Dahmer and Ed Gein.

His business typically turns over between £10,000 and £20,000 a year, with each commission taking six to 20 hours to complete.

However, this year, he decided to take on no paid work so he could "have fun" with his designs, carving characters including Michael Myers from Halloween and Uncle Fester from The Addams Family, as well as prominent political figures he finds to be "terrifying".

The father of two said: "I wanted to practise carving a face and, quite frankly, I found them both - Putin and Trump - terrifying people so I thought: 'I'm going to stick them on a pumpkin'."

Jamie's designs have become increasingly intricate over the years, and his technique involves starting with a stencil of an image or a drawing before using lino cutters and chisels of different sizes to carve varying depths into the pumpkin.

Jamie also films videos of his carvings on social media, many of which have gone viral – such as his Ozzy Osbourne pumpkin clip gaining more than 1.5 million views on Facebook.

In 2024, he first carved political figures including Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.

However, he was "not happy" with his Trump design and felt he could improve, prompting him to focus on creating more portraits.

"This sometimes happens and I always feel like I need to revisit certain people. Trump has been at the top of that list for a while."

He also received commissions to create pumpkins featuring a haunted supermarket for Morrisons, Greek vases for the Hercules musical and the logo of Stranger Things: The First Shadow stage show.

He has experimented with artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up his creative process.

He explained: "It's been a game changer for me this year – it's allowed me to make stencils a lot quicker than Photoshop – and with much more precision.

"I'm now able to use AI and manipulate images, changing face expressions, smooth textures, and more importantly change the lighting on a subject.

He said: "It's simply another tool, automates time-consuming tasks, and has given me more time to be creative."

Jamie displays his finished pumpkins on his front lawn, washing them with bleach and water to help them last as long as possible.

Around Halloween, "a lot" of locals drive past his house to admire his creations, and he even judges the local pumpkin carving competition.

His children also get "stuck in" with the carving, with Jamie letting his two daughters "loose" with his tools.

He added: "My eldest gets really into it, and really concentrates when she's doing the carving – I think she's definitely a budding professional pumpkin carver!"

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