Gourd art

A friend of mine gave me some dried gourds to play with a few months ago.
It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do with them and this is
what I have come up with so far!

 

 

There are a total of four applications to each piece. After the gourd has been dried and cleaned, the design is drawn on in pencil first, then I burn the design on with a wood burning tool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I add colour using acrylic paint and finally drill holes for the led light to shine through.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The hardest part was figuring out a design for a stand that would hold the led light as well as the gourd itself. The first one I made was a “coil” design from hand hammered copper tubing. It worked very well for a small gourd but was too “springy” far a larger/heavier one.

 

 

 

 

 

So I made a circular stand with legs! Finally the huge anvil that my husband brought home ages ago has been put to good use!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end product is a delight! These are the first gourd lamps of many to come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see these lamps at the Lillooet Farmers market Fridays & at the Lillooet Christmas craft fair coming  Sunday November 19th!

Check out my store page for gourd lamps for sale by clicking this link!