Gourd Drums and Drinking Vessels

Our booth on Sunday.

Gourd Drum

I worked on a gourd drum today that I'd already dyed yellow and red. As I was cleaning out the interior a bit better, I found a bunch of tiny spiders inside. I guess they'd made it their nest. It seems insects like the pithy interior of gourds. That part gets removed when you clean it, but I've found some bugs like to burrow inside it.
My hands gave out before I was done sanding the top and bottom level. The rest of it will have to wait for another day.

Field Trip to Welburn Gourd Farm

Photos from the Welburn Gourd Farm we visited today. Perfect weather, white puffy cirrus clouds and hardly a soul there on a Friday morning. They've got a much bigger store too, with new inks, dyes, and other products specifically designed with gourd artists in mind. And generous too. When a gourd was a bit too big for one price ring, he often gave us the lower price and he didn't need to do that. His name is Danny and he's been working there for five years.

We each got some big gourds for drums, plus some assorted gourds for other projects or just because they looked too cool to resist. I got some nice dipper gourds too.

Welburn just had a big gourd festival in June so I thought the inventory might have been picked over, but to my surprise every bin was filled as full as you can imagine. Enough to break the bank if you get too carried away.

They do mail order, but there is no substitute for hand picking your own gourds.