Turning a Gourd Into a Pouch

My friend Sal gets the credit for this next project.  It's based on a gourd he brought back from Mexico. See the photo of it at the top of the page.

For this project I needed a gourd that could be turned into a little bowl. The first one I picked up had a good shape, but when I flipped it over it had a long lengthwise crack.  Rats.  But I figured I could save half of it and make a scooper for birdseed or lavender or something.

But I'm glad I kept looking because then I found a gourd in my stash that was a twofer. I was able to cut it in half and make 2 bowls.  I used my gourd saw, but a hand saw would have worked.

After I cleaned it inside and out, and sanded it, I drilled holes around the rim with a Dremel drill. Then I did pyrography petroglyphs. In other words, I used a wood burning tool to draw 2 lizards in a petroglyph style. And on the other bowl I put a cat line drawing.  I thought part of the appeal was to keep it really basic and primitive looking.  My boyfriend looked at them and said, "The art is too basic." Sigh. We always have different visions for things.  Simplistic was my goal. I feel like the crochet is going to add yet another element, so I wanted to keep the art basic. 

Next I will apply a clear finish over the art, because when I do the crochet part, I don't want the overspray to go on the string. If you look at the photos this will make a lot more sense. I think I am done with this project for today so stay tuned.

Cleaned bottle gourd.

The top and the bottom of the gourd.  I saved the middle part for another project.

I used a drill to put the holes for the thread to go through.

lizard and cat in pyrograpyhy

Gourds and Rain

I just wrote an article on crafts here: http://hubpages.com/hub/Crafts-I-Love It features some gourd art so I thought I'd mention it in this blog. I'm looking forward to exploring more pyrography. 

Fish Gourd Bowl by Guy Taylor

We've been getting a lot of rain. One of the bins of gourds on the patio that is sealed against the weather was really heavy when my boyfriend tried to move it. As you know, gourds are super light, so there is no reason this should have been heavy. So he opens it and stink-o. Somehow it was filled with water. So we dumped everything on the dirt to dry again.  That was before this rainstorm that's been going for four days already, so they are all wet again. I sure hope we can save most of them.

Gourds and Hubpages

I've been reviewing and updating all my gourd articles on Hubpages. Hubpages has made so many improvements in the way things are catergorized and linked together, that I had to edit things to catch up with the newer features. If you don't know about Hubpages, come say hi. Hubpages . The link will take you to my gourd santa page and you can maneuver from there.

Gourd Rain Stick Build Along

Part One and Part Two


I grew this snake gourd in my garden and was hoarding it to make something special. Then I decided it would be just right for a rain stick. I really enjoyed this project even if it was rather labor intensive. Now I just need to join a drum circle or something so I have a chance to play it in a real environment.
I'm getting quite the collection of weird gourd instruments. I'm made a didjeridoo, some rattles, a guiro, a drum, and now a rain stick.

Update: I have no idea why Youtube videos suddenly stopped working on my blogs, even the ones that were my own productions. Until I figure this out, I apologize for the inconvenience.

Wild Horse Trotting Around a Gourd Vase

Last night my boyfriend was making a paleo style bowl and had just woodburned a curly horned ram on it. I said it sure would be neat to do a horse, so I sketched up some horses. They weren't really the style he needed, so I slept on it, and this morning I just couldn't bear to waste those horse sketches. So I got some of the new pyrography paper we just got and traced the best of the horses onto it. I selected a gourd that would make a good vase and set out to work sawing off the top and cleaning it for woodburning. It was very satisfying seeing my drawings come to life on the gourd. Then I got to experiment with the new ink dyes we got. The Gourdmaster ones were so much better than the other brand we bought. In fact the other brand left streaks and dried so quickly I could barely get in onto the gourd before it dried. The Gourdmaster inks stayed wet a long time and covered up the streaks from the first inks. Unfortunately we spent $30.00 on the other inks. If my boyfriend hadn't already opened all three packages (each with three bottles) I would have returned them the next chance I got. Maybe they work great on some things, but not on gourds.



I already drilled holes around the rim of the gourd because I either want to sew on pine needles or raffia around the brim. And I think I have a buffalo head nickle button around here that I can sew on to the front. But tomorrow is another day and it's time to wind down now.

Gourd Hand Saw

We got a new gourd saw and I must say it's making my life so much easier. It's given me a renewed interest in gourd crafting. Yesterday I even dug out a gourd lamp I started a few years ago. I just got tired of all the hand sawing. So I flip it over and it had a spider inside and also silverfish. Yuck. So I learned something new...silver fish like to eat the papery part on the inside of a cut gourd.

So I used the new cleaning ball to get the papery part removed, and removed the spider of course, and then I cut out a lot more bits with the new gourd hand saw. It was fun. I also cut out a fairy gourd house with doors and windows, and I started working on my rain stick gourd I'm making from a snake gourd that I grew in my garden.

I'm having a blast. As soon as I have breakfast, I'm going to go work on my gourds some more.