Stories

This time even David Loh admits he has his hands full with his latest fruit artwork.

The pumpkin David will be working on

Two years ago the Birmingham street artist spent two days carving pictures of dragons and swirls into a 331 lbs (150.1kg) pumpkin.

Now he will be travelling to Southampton on Friday 9 October to put his stamp on a one of the fruits weighing in at an astonishing 1,030 lbs (467.2kg), which has been produced by the European pumpkin-growing record holder.

Jack O' Lantern

"I have seen a picture of it and it's massive and must be taller than me," says David, who will be carving the fruit to help sailing charity Jubilee Sailing Trust raise money at the city's Autumn Pumpkin festival.

"The best thing is that there's so much space to work on it's like a giant canvass - it's a challenge but at least I'll have enough room to tell the history of the Chinese people!"

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the world's largest pumpkin weighed 1,689 lbs (766.12 kg) and was grown in Lincoln, Rhode Island, USA, on 17 November 2007 by Joseph Jutras.

Onlookers in Birmingham

World record

It was later carved into a Halloween Jack O’ Lantern by America's Scott Cully.

Grower Stuart Parton, says the giant pumpkin he's donated to David and the charity  took 100 days to grow in a polythene tunnel.

"We're working towards breaking the world record and we're getting closer and closer," adds Stuart, who is helped by his twin brother Ian, 48.

"It's all about genetics; we've just paid a world-record price for special pumpkin seeds from America from a fruit that's produced a lot of records.

Intricate patterns

"Even when I was a kid the first thing I'd do when we came back from a holiday was run to the garden and check how much my pumpkins had grown.

Joe with his world-record pumpkin

"To get the world record is my life."

Malaysian-born chef David has been carving intricate patterns into fruit for more than 30 years.

Onlookers can usually find him working patiently with a craft knife on fruit laid out on a stone bench outside Birmingham's Bullring during the summer months.

Takeaway restaurants

Surfacing fish, monstrous heads with wild eyes, and  menacing dragons are amongst his creations. Some of his more elaborate fruit sculptures include framed fruit teapots and vegetable stilettos.

The father-of-two, 50, is the son of a chef mother and carpenter father, and came to England in 1990 to live in Stourbridge and has worked in some of the region's many takeaway restaurants.

Monster melon

He left school without any qualifications but loved art and at 16 he learnt to carve fruit at the restaurant where his father worked.

About 15 years ago he settled in Birmingham and now works as a part-time chef at a Chinatown restaurant, although he has worked in Malaysia, Holland, Jersey and Germany.

Special creation

He says an accident 20 years ago with cooking oil has restricted the amount of time he can stand in a kitchen.

David, of Ladywood, usually practises ten hours a day on fruit but can sometimes work for up to 16 hours a day if it is a special creation.

Easy does it

He prefers carving melons "because of their colour and size" but says he can work on many different types of fruit and vegetables including "carving a turnip into a flower in 30 seconds".

"I love a challenge and hopefully the weather will be good and I can create something really special," he adds.

The fruit artist has also created his own fruit characters and is busy animating them in the hope that one day they will be shown on television.