"OH GOURDS"
by
Kay Haynes
(IC: homeowner)
When I saw some gourd seed packets & some painted gourds someone had painted, I said, "I can do that" and my daughter Laurie said, "Gourds, oh gourds". Thus the name I used over several years while doing "Craft shows"
You are only limited by your imagination, & I have a BIG imagination. I looked on the web for gourds that were sold "RAW" (just washed, not cleaned out) and started learning how to clean them inside & out (Could not have done it without the help of my wonderful husband Joel) and I was on my way. The next pictures are of SOME of my creations.
I purchased a tiny miniature electric saw for some of my intricate designs. There are MANY kinds of gourds & the growers are VERY particular about them. The gourds are usually fertilized at night by a moth, so Crossed pollination does happen, so the growers go out at night & put tiny mesh sacks over the blooms to prevent this.
If I broke a gourd, I made use of it.
I received requests from people for different designs & tried my best to create what they wanted.
I made jewelry boxes, potpourri holders, banks, light houses Lamps & other designs.
Different Holidays gave me the chance to do cute or scary designs
Ghosts
Lamps
I painted the APPLE Gourds like apples & strawberries
I made birdhouses from Maranka gourds. They reminded me of Sea shells
The Bumble Bee is a Mexican Bottle neck. The elephant took 3 gourds to make. Two bottoms from Kettle gourds for the ears & a bottle neck for the head.
My Whale lamps were very popular. I have more pictures, but I have reached my limit of 15 pictures. I just might post some more. I hope you have enjoyed seeing some of my handy work. Kay Haynes
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Published March 31st, 2016 8:17 PM
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Sarah Hovatter on May 31, 2017
I do grow my own gourds and have several!!! You are an inspiration! Thank you for this post, I LOVE them all! Maybe some day I'll get mine painted....
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Frequently asked questions
Have a question about this project?
Inspiration yes! WOW, thanks, how are you cleaning the inside out? Your work is beautiful!
How do you clean it, and do you get the seeds out on all the crafts using gourds? Thank you.
How do you clean them and do you remove all seeds from all crafts using gourds? Thank you.