Gourds for Texas

I wanted to show a couple of the gourds I finished, and sent off to Texas for the gourd show! The blue one is called" Swallowtail sky". I came up with a new way to use slices of gourds which I think turned out pretty nice.

This is the way the next gourd started, with apoxy sculpt applied to make a face on a banana gourd.

Here is the finished project! She is titled " Gifts from the sea". Her hair made from horse hair (Thank You, Galina!!!) was very hard to get attached without showing the glue!

Next, I wanted to continue with the steps required to make a fine art gourd! Here is a gourd cut open, and you can see all the seeds and fibers inside. All this stuff has to be cleaned out which requires a few different tools.

I use this scraper to get the loose stuff out.

But a drill, with this handy sanding ball on the end helps enormously to get the inside clean and smooth! I used a small jigsaw to cut the gourd into the shape you see. I usually paint the inside next with either spray paint or with acrylics and a brush! Then the more fun journey begins to make the gourd beautiful!!

I am thinking about having a beginning gourd art class this summer, here at the farm. If anyone is interested, please email me or comment on this post.

On another note, I am so happy to see my summer bird friends back, including the rose breasted grosbeaks, hummingbirds, and orioles!! YAY!!!