Going for the gourd...

When I'm out in Colorado with my family, I love my time in the studio...a chance to be in there with my Dad, my daughter, if I'm lucky, Emma...while I did do some drawing and printmaking, I also tried my hand again with gourds. I adapted an idea from Bonnie Gibson's book Gourd: Southwest Gourd Techniques and Projects.

I used a whole gourd and the tops of several others to begin my barrel cactus project. The dried gourds are fairly easy to cut through, a keyhole saw, an exacto knife and small files are handy to have. Also, don't forget to wear a dust mask while you're cutting, cleaning and filing. The gourds are full of seeds and a type of mold that isn't good to breath in.

The clean and filed pieces...

At this point, the instructions called for painting the individual pieces but I chose to wood burn some simple lines. (These are NOT my "man" hands..thanks Dad for the demo!)

I used Eco-Flo leather dyes from Tandy to color the cactus base and flowers. An awl and a little white glue made it easy to attach the flowers to the cactus. I added a few toothpick "thorns" and a spray coat of acrylic and it was done!

Gourd gallery:

Dad's gourd...he wove pine needles around the top and used leather dyes sprayed with alcohol to give it the interesting color and patina.

This is a painted gourd I made a couple of years ago. I used turquoise earrings for the hummingbird's eyes and self-adhesive copper tape for the rim.

A pueblo gourd, wood burned and painted. I also drilled little star holes in the back and painted the inside so it could be used as a votive holder.

A buggy gourd with a beaded rim...

 

Comments

[sarah]

So cool! You always have such interesting projects!

[stacy]

They are all amazing! Great job. I really love the patina on your dads. :)

[anya meacham]

Jenny, I live down the hill from yourparents.They told me about your fun gourds and your blog while at the rodeo last week. Your mom is crazy about your barrel cactus and I agree. It's great. I'm hoping to have a class from the woman here in Westcliffe that does gourds. That mottled finish on Kurt's is fine too.

[little Sticher]

so wonderful