"OH GOURDS"

Kay Haynes
by Kay Haynes
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"
Lady Snail
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
Jewelry box
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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  • Mercedes Mercedes on Oct 08, 2018

    Inspiration yes! WOW, thanks, how are you cleaning the inside out? Your work is beautiful!

  • Rita Rita on May 13, 2019

    How do you clean it, and do you get the seeds out on all the crafts using gourds? Thank you.

  • Rita Rita on May 13, 2019

    How do you clean them and do you remove all seeds from all crafts using gourds? Thank you.

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  • Sarah Hovatter 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....

  • Carol Carol on Oct 27, 2017

    I love the little hens! I collect chickens and I just love yours! Great job.

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