When Ashley Campbell moved to Vermont from New Jersey six months ago, it was to join her boyfriend, Michael Orfan, chef-owner of Rustic Roots restaurant in Shelburne. (Alice Levitt interviewed him for Seven Days in June.) Orfan is known for his charcuterie, but he’s not the only one with knife skills: Campbell is one hell of a pumpkin carver.
And not just jack-o’-lanterns — she has made incredibly detailed portraits, such as the one here (for a bridal shower; it took her 12 hours) — corporate logos, wedding decorations, and more, as her website reveals.
Campbell says she got into carving pumpkins — along with her father, Steve — when she was still a kid. “When I was a teenager, I started making my own patterns,” she says of the overlay designs that guide her knife. And at her previous job in New Jersey, Campbell says there was an annual pumpkin-carving contest, which she always won. “My designs got more and more complicated,” she says.
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