Gourds

I have been dabbling a bit with primitive gourd art. In 2013 I traded some items for gourds. Some of the books sold at the store are based on working with gourds. So, I thought I would put my experience with making twined bags and working with baskets toward gourd design.

One of the techniques used with gourds is coiling the rim (I have two containers that have coiled rims and am working on a third). Coiling takes a long time depending on the size of the rim and the thread used for the coiling. I used 2 ply waxed linen thread (4 ply is recommended but I did not have any on hand) and .5 oz hemp cordage.  The large gourd with a coiled rim took about a week just to do the coiling. Thank goodness for the Internet and streaming movies. I also checked my native American books based on certain geometric designs used in textiles, etc  and thought some of the designs could be painted on gourds also.

I painted the gourds with leather dye and sometimes added a red chestnut wood stain.

The following pictures are samples of some of the gourd bowls, containers, bird houses, etc that I have made.