New Gourds to Play With

What a gorgeous sunrise this morning.
I have a new batch of gourds that need cleaning, painting, and loving. I just have to find the motivation to do it! We are getting ready for the Lucerne Valley Pow-wow. I'm afraid I'm not going to have much done at this rate. I want to make quails and dolls so those are the shapes of the gourds I got. Go me.

My boyfriend has been busy making gourd bowls and ceremonial rattles. Our art is totally different.

These will be quail.

Assorted hard shell gourds.

Time to clean them up with a pot scrubber.

Sunset in Lucerne Valley CA

Jewelry Gourds fit in my palm. I'm using them to make doll heads.

Gourd Class Yes Or No

I've been asked to teach a gourd art class, but we are moving. I think we will end up getting rid of many of our gourds.  We just won't have room. At this point I don't even know where we are moving or if there will be a yard or a garage or storage space of any kind, so it's hard to downsize. I'm not really fond of getting rid of stuff. I worked too hard to buy it to begin with.

I told them maybe I would teach the gourd class at the same event only a year from now.  They don't pay their teachers anyway.  I need the money so I probably would have said yes if it was going to help me pay rent on the new place. Of course teaching has side benefits, like publicity and maybe someone would buy some of my gourd art. But too much volunteering and not enough income earning leads to starvation and no one likes that. It's sort of a double whammy because I have to pay to get into the event and then work for free. That's why I haven't taught much for that organization. If anyone out there wants to hire me to teach a class, I'm all ears.

Faery House Gourd

I got to work on my faery house gourd today. I used the wood burner to add ferns, mushrooms, lady bugs, a butterfly, some acorns and some oak leaves to my house.  I need to make a chimney next.

Two Gourd Fairy Houses Work in Progress

Last Sunday I took gourds to the archery meeting and started working on 2 gourd fairy houses.  It was supposed to be just the one, but the first gourd I cut open had no seeds in it. Zip, zilch, nada. So I had to cut the second one open because I wanted to glue the gourd seeds like tiles around the windows I had cut into the gourd. Then yesterday the plan was to continue on the fairy houses with the wood burning tool, only yesterday was a mess and I never got to it. So today if the rain is done I'll try again. I want to work in front of the garage but it's a bit chilly out so we'll see.

Some gourds have a pretty silvery interior like this one.

This gourd had no seeds so I had to steal them from the one above.

My Friend's Garden

My friend Jessica in Santa Ana is growing gourds this year.

Princess Gourd Doll Folk Art Pyrography

I just finished a gourd doll with wood burned designs (pyrography) and I really love the way she turned out. She has a heart shaped face and a little crown and decorative patterns swirl around her. They include lady bugs, chicks, a bird in leaves, some lacy moss, 2 caterpillars, some butterflies, some flowers, and other random designs. Such a joy to make although it took many hours. It makes me so happy when something comes out nice.

Looped Gourd

One way to embellish a gourd is by looping it with wire or thread. So here is a gourd I just started working on.  I've never tried embroidery thread and it seems to be going a lot slower than when I used linen or hemp. I'll have to keep you posted on how it's coming along.