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...
So cool! You always have such interesting projects!
Posted by: sarah | July 20, 2007 at 06:50 PM
They are all amazing! Great job. I really love the patina on your dads. :)
Posted by: stacy | July 20, 2007 at 10:29 PM
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.
Posted by: anya meacham | July 27, 2007 at 09:38 AM
so wonderful
Posted by: little Sticher | October 14, 2007 at 08:19 AM