Gourd Nativity Scene

Two days before Christmas I get an insane idea to make a Nativity Scene out of gourds, including the people. It was a present. I barely got it done in time. The clear acrylic spray was still slightly tacky. For inside the 'stable' I used raffia cut into bits. First I tried putting long pieces in there but that was too springy. I used a bit of natural color roving to set the sheep and wisemen on, and I used a wee bit of white roving for under the baby Jesus.

The woman I made it for loved it. And that's what mattered.

The Welburn Gourd Farm is having a clearance of last  year's gourds right now for 50% off, so we are planning a trip out there in a day or two. Hit hard by the recession, they even have a 75% off voucher on their website right now, but you have to spend $200 for the privilege and we just don't need that many gourds sitting around.

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.

Farm on Gourd

Today I painted a landscape farm scene on a bottle gourd.