In the fruit carver's skilled hands and using a small and very sharp pointed knife, an ordinary papaya or pumpkin is turned into a bouquet of flowers, a radish becomes a tiny rabbit or daisy or a carrot a rare orchid. Almost any kind of fruit or vegetable can be used. The carver must understand the texture of each and use its natural colour to imitate that of chosen subject . Not all the carvings are as small as a flower a large round wetermelon becomes a richly decorated and lidder bowl to be used as a container for fruit salad. The green outer skin is cut away to make a pattern in relif of flowers or even characters in Thai literature