A couple of weeks ago, I announced my new video lesson that teaches a Scroll Watermelon Pattern that was inspired by a competition entry that I created a while back. This is a watermelon carving pattern that people have been asking me how to carve for over 2 1/2 years now.  Making a video showing how has been on my list of things to do ever since and now, it’s finally done!

In this article, I’ll show you a short video that gives a “tour” of my First Prize winning Under Sea Garden fruit carving display that inspired the making of my Scroll Watermelon Pattern video carving instructions. continue reading…

Svetlana Partem and her 2nd prize winning fruit carving display at last year’s Heritage Days Vegetable and Fruit Carving Competition

Showcase your talent at transforming basic food into amazing pieces of art by entering a food art competition this year.

We are coming into the season for Food art contests here in the United States. Both amateurs and professionals can enter their elaborate, decorative carvings and compete for cash prizes and bragging rights.

As we’ve seen in past blogs, whether the artwork is created out of fruit, vegetables, pizza or lattes, the artistic masterpieces are often breathtaking. There are a several fruit carving competitions taking place this summer and fall in the Midwest United States. Find out more about these food art contests by reading on. continue reading…

Do you have a quick moment to have a laugh? Take a look at these two very short and funny videos where technology meets fruit carving.

The iPad is a great tool for those who want to be able to watch my fruit carving video lessons anywhere (as long as you have a high speed internet connections.

But the guy in this video seems content with using his iPad in the kitchen in a different way.  Take a look at this viral video. Even though this video is in German, you certainly don’t need to understand German to get a laugh out of it. Take a look. It’s funny. continue reading…

Latte Art by Mike Breach

Watermelon portraits and pizza portraits, both of which I recently posted about, are interesting forms of food art but I’ve come across yet another remarkable form of food portraits – coffee latte art - where images of people are drawn into lattes and cappuccinos!

Mike Breach, a barista at a Manhattan hotel, began experimenting with creating drawings on the top of lattes while at work. He sketches using a bamboo skewer and the contrast between the dark coffee and light milky foam creates stunning images. However, due to the fickle nature of the foam, the images only last a few minutes. Better snap a photo fast! continue reading…

Brazilian Professional Fruit Carver Edson Oliveira with one of his watermelon portraits

I’ve recently been publishing some photos of watermelon portraits and pizza portraits and today, I’m sharing some photos of watermelon carvings of people by professional fruit carver Edson Oliveira of Brazil.

Since I am not familiar with Brazilian culture and current events, I cannot tell you if these carved watermelon portraits are of celebrities or if they are of ordinary people. Ultimately, I suppose it does not really matter. Besides showing off Edsons carving skills, the point of this article is to share with you some more images of watermelon portraits to give you some ideas of your own. You can see how Edson carved watermelon portraits with people with glasses and men with beards. You’ll see some with couples. Carved watermelon with images of couples can make great buffet table centerpieces for weddings.

Carving watermelon portraits is a fun hobby that can also be profitable. Caterers who learn to carve watermelon portraits (or have their staff continue reading…

After publishing recent posts showing watermelon portraits, now I’ll show you some terrific pizza portraits.  The variety of creative food art never ceases to amaze me. Before yesterday, I’d never seen this kind of interesting food art before.

The maker of these remarkable pizza portraits is Domenico Crolla who is the owner of Bella Napoli Pizzeria in Glasgow in the UK. His skill at making pizza portraits caught the attention of Pizza magazine who featured Domenico on their cover.

I don’t know how Domenica constructs this pizza portraits but here are photos of a bunch of them for your viewing enjoyment. I’m sure you’ll recognize who is in many of these portraits made of cheese and tomato sauce. continue reading…

See Pamela Anderson watermelon portrait

In keeping with the theme of watermelon portraits that I’ve been in my past few blog articles, today I’m showcasing some carved watermelon celebrity portraits. As I wrote this article I remembered times when I’ve seen a few of these celebrities live. I’ll tell you those stories.

Katya Stefanova Carves Watermelon Celebrity Portraits

Watermelon carving artist Katya Stefanova came to my attention when images of her celebrity portraits showed up in my Facebook feed.  Although she is not a customer/student of mine, I am showcasing her carvings here to show you some examples of how you can carve watermelon portraits. continue reading…

Professional Fruit Artist Aneta Lekas meets Brad Smith and Bianca Kamber of the Bachelor Canada

Recently, Aneta Lekas of Say It With Fruit promoted her fruit carving services at the Toronto Bridal Show. Aneta Lekas is a professional fruit carver in Toronto Canada who is one of my student /customers of my Portrait Carving Course. For her display booth she carved a watermelon portrait of the Bachelor Canada‘s Brad Smith and Bianca Kambera and got the pleasure of meeting the happy couple.

Aneta Lekas Carves Watermelon Portrait of Brad Smith and Bianca Kamber of  The Bachelor Canada. continue reading…

Here’s a little something just for fun where I made my watermelon portrait talk.

To learn more about how to carve watermelon portraits (as well as pumpkin portraits), check out my page about my Pumpkin Carving Portrait Course. continue reading…

Carved pumpkin portrait is the highlight of this birthday fruit display by Deborah Cheeseman

A carved pumpkin portrait make a great centerpiece for birthday fruit carving displays.

One of my student/customers Deborah Cheeseman, who is a professional caterer and fruit carver in Alabama, created a really fun and personalized birthday fruit display for a party honoring her 90 year old aunt.  I loved it and thought you might get a kick out of seeing it, too. It’s fun, happy and free spirited like the 90 year young birthday girl that it was created to honor.

The centerpiece is a pumpkin portrait of Deborah’s Aunt “Baby Rae”. Debbie wrote to me the following: continue reading…

Mother’s Day will be here soon. Flowers have been a long standing popular gift for Mother’s Day.

Making breakfast or brunch for Mom? Individual serving fruit bouquet would be fun.

Are you looking for something more original? If your mom lives near you, you can present her with something a little different. How about making her a flower bouquet made of fruits or vegetables?

Something Small and Sweet for Mother’s Day

An individual serving of fruit arranged in a small bouquet would be fun, especially if you are serving her breakfast in bed. This square garden fruit bouquet is one of the many projects taught in my Vegetable and Fruit Carving 101 Course for Beginners.

What about a melon carved to look like a bunch of flowers? This watermelon that I carved to look like a bunch of curled petal roses is a pattern that will be taught in one of my upcoming video lessons. The release date continue reading…

Happy Birthday Watermelon carving by Mariano Orozco

Recently I published a couple of articles showing Happy Birthday watermelon carvings that look like cakes. Now I’ll show you a few other birthday watermelon carvings that some of my student / customers have created for their loved ones and their customers.

Happy Birthday Watermelon Carving – Bowl

This first watermelon carving was made by one of my student/customers Rose Flores. She sent this photo to me back in June. Rose had been making some carvings for her friends and family before joining my lessons. She really caught on fast.  You can see one of her first rose watermelon carving in a previous blog post. Below, you can see her first paid order for a birthday watermelon carved fruit bowl. continue reading…

These cakes made of fruit give a whole new meaning to the words fruit cake.

In a recent blog post I showed some watermelon cakes similar to the ideas presented in my video lessons Watermelon Cakes #1 and #2.  Now I’ll show you some variations on those ideas. Make sure to read to the end to see some wacky and imaginative fruit cakes.

This first cake made from fruit is about as close to carving fruit as my husband, Frank gets. We wanted to put together a quick cake made of fruit for Franks son’s birthday. My stepson is an Iron Man Triathlete and doesn’t much care for real cake. This was a kind of last minute thing. continue reading…

Carved watermelon rose topped cake taught in Nita’s Watermelon Cakes video instructions.

For diabetics, vegans, people with gluten allergies and for others who simply want a clean healthy alternative to regular cake, cakes made from watermelons are great.  They are pretty, colorful and pleasing to the eye. From a health perspective, watermelon cakes are a  much better choice because they have none of the artery clogging fat, and none of the highly refined white flour and sugar found in regular cakes. Compared to commercially available cakes and cake mixes, watermelon cakes have no artificial colors, flavors, additives or preservatives. Cakes made from watermelons contain only fresh fruit.

Even for people with no dietary restrictions, cakes made from watermelons are an eye-catching unexpected surprise that will delight your guests. continue reading…

Tomorrow, Sunday April 12st, 2013 the Food Network will air a new episode of Giada in Paradise that shows the art of Thai fruit carving on national TV. This show was shot if beautiful Thailand. While there, Giada de Laurentiis visits the Siam Carving Academy in Thailand to try her hand at Thai Fruit Carving. What a treat for the eyes that will be. Giada is gorgeous, Thailand is a beautiful tropical paradise and the stunning art of fruit carving all in one show will quite lovely to watch.

Giada in Paradise show – Giada di Laurentiis learns to carve fruit – Photo courtesy of FoodNetwork.com

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In Thailand, the Songkran Festival signifying  the Thai New Year is celebrated for 3 to 10 days. Songkran comes from the Sanskrit word meaning change or move. It is celebrated as a time for renewal and cleansing, improving attitudes and behaviors and setting new resolutions.

Songkran is also known as the water festival. Some of that traditions of Songkran are quiet, introspective and spiritual. While others are wet and wild! continue reading…

Watermelon rind flower with fruit kabobs by Abby Veira

A few photos of fruit Easter carvings have been sent to my by students and blog readers. I am sharing these photos here. Maybe you will get some ideas that you can use for your Easter carvings.

Actually, when you take away the Easter eggs, these carving ideas can be used any time of the year. continue reading…

This year we hosted a family Easter party complete with carved fruit and veggie Easter Centerpieces. In this post I’ll share some of the fun we had and the carvings I made. You’ll see photos of my Easter Centerpieces and you can see a video of the highlights of our family Easter party.

This Easter, we had a larger than usual turn out. And, we had a super busy week leading up to the party before we even began on all we needed to do for the party. My husband and I had a lot of preparation to do. You know, the continue reading…

Easter is coming up quickly, so here are some pretty Easter ideas for food carvings.

Calla Lilies which bloom in the Spring have long been a symbol of purity and beauty, resurrection and rebirth. Commonly used for Easter celebrations and weddings the calla lily has a simple and beautiful elegance.

I carved the Calla Lilies that you see pictured here from continue reading…

Radish and Turnip flowers by student Allan Jarvis

This blog post features the lovely fruit and vegetable carvings of one of my student/customers, Allan Jarvis. Allan is in Queensland, Australia. In one of Allan’s first emails to me he told me that he was introduced to fruit and vegetable carving many years ago in Thailand but had not done too much until recently. He wrote, “The book I bought in Thailand is great but not enough steps… ” Shortly after, Allan joined our video lessons.

With spring celebrations like Easter, Songkran Festival and the Indian Festival, Holi coming up you might see some ideas here that you can use. continue reading…