During these days left to this year’s Halloween festival, traditionally held on October 31, a small room owned by 29 -years- old Nguyen Anh Vu dwelling in An Hai Bac Ward, Son Tra District, Da Nang are observing a vibrant ambiance with the shaping of pumpkin pumpkins into demon masks for Halloween decorations. On the small table are pruning tools and witch masks. Once completed, Vu-made masks will be moved to decorate at hotels, restaurants and resorts to serve the festival night.

Mr. Nguyen Anh Vu shapes a pumpkin into a demon mask from for Halloween decoration. Photo: THANH TINH

Unique Halloween masks

According to Vu, for the Halloween mask, the main fruit he chose is standard decorative pumpkins, because according to many people's conception, the cultivar of winter squash is associated with this festival. Pumpkins with ghoulish faces and illuminated by candles are a sure sign of the Halloween season. With the skillful hands of a chef with many years of experience, Vu has creates sophisticated and unique devil masks.

Vu had to go to the Da Nang wholesale market to choose raw materials, come up with ideas and create blocks, and conduct detailed trimming of parts to complete the product.

He said “The difficulty when making a demon mask is to carve small details meticulously and carefully, especially parts such as horns, ears and hair. Depending on artistic intention, a long or round pumpkin is chosen. For example, the long pumpkin is suitable for the creation of the witch’s face whilst the round one matches the trimming of the face of a doll or child”

The man also revealed that trimming flowers, animals, and human faces is not too difficult, but it is not “a piece of cake” to shaping the devil's face, especially creating a soul in every work. Vu hopes that through his works, people will know more about the art of sectional sculpture.

On these days, Vu is very busy with orders of beautiful and eye-catching Halloween masks from hotels and entertainment areas across Da Nang as Halloween is around the corner.

Depending on the degree of difficulty, the price for finished products is between VND300,000 and VND 800,000. If he works hard, he can do about 5 masks every day.
Each devil face made from a pruned pumpkin can be displayed for about 7 - 10 days.

Keen on sculptural trimming of fruit, root, tuber and leafy vegetables

Holding the apprenticeship as a chef at the A- Au Vocational Training Centre, after graduating from college, Vu worked as a chef at restaurants, hotels and resorts.

While studying and working, Vu tinkered with books and the internet to learn more about the arts of carving fruit, root, tuber and leafy vegetables.

"The great passion prompted me to gain a deeper insight into the skills of carving fruit successfully used in China and Western countries via the internet, and practice continuously to horn my skills”, Vu said.

At first, Vu could only trim flowers or simple decorative animals such as shrimp, fish, and birds. Later, the man created the shapes of animals with more sophisticated details such as peacocks, phoenixes, dragons and human faces.

The man said: “The difficulty in trimming human faces is that the proportions must be appropriate. When trimming flowers, if the petals are large and small, they can still be visible. However, during the trimming of a human face, if one eye is large, the other is small, it may fail to reflect vividly the soul of the character as well as a message that artisans are aiming for”.

At first, it took about 5-6 hours for Vu to trim a human face. Later, Vu trimed faster with a need of about one hour to complete his work, and about 4 - 5 hours for a sophisticated product.  

Since the beginning of 2020, Vu has worked as a trainer on fruit trimming at the Da Nang –based Dong A University. In his free time, Vu usually writes books on the art of fruit carving.

Vu has released a book on advanced carving arts compiled by himself. The book features step-to-step instructions on how to caving the shapes of animals and human beings with more than 50 samples.

Currently, Vu is focusing on writing more books, upload his videos on Youtube. In the future, Vu wants to open more classes on the art of fruit carving. “This profession requires people to be patient and meticulous. To get to the top, they must constantly practice to gain more professional experience. In the past, I stayed up all night to work. I was very tired but when I finished any orders, received compliments from customers,  I was very happy," Vu confided.

Reporting by DAN TAM – Translating by A. THU