The wide, wild world of gourds

My, my, I mean, this world of gourds is truly wide. I must confess, all I did was paint a couple of them, and as I said in my earlier post “painting gourds”, I really enjoyed it, great medium. I have to admit that I wasn’t aware what a vast gourd world there is out there. I’ve found so much that this will definitely be the next craft I continue to actively explore and experiment with.

You can not only simply paint them, you can use a wood-burning tool, inlay them with stones, dye them, carve them, dremel them, or add rattan. I believe I’m only touching the surface here. There are gourd clubs and societies. People are unbelievably passionate about their gourds, and I can understand why! One growers site that I visited said that works of art made from gourds have sold for over $10,000!

Now, if you wanted to, you could start from step one, shop for seeds, grow them, clean and dry them, etc. I’m not going to get into all that, it’s not my forte′. If you want to go that route I recommend you visit http://www.thegardenersrake.com/ and if there’s not an archive on the subject, just ask Denise, I’m sure she’ll know all about it. Instead, I’ll start by giving you a view of some of the amazing varieties of shapes and sizes that are produced, and tell you where to get them, already cleaned and dried, ready to embellish. Just look at all these fantastic shapes and imagine what you could do with them!

Bottle Gourds

Long-necked dippers and a Jewelry Gourd

Kettle Gourds and a Swan gourd

More jewelry gourds and Duck Gourds

And I’m just scratching the surface here! Can you just imagine the creations you could make with all these shapes and sizes to work with? The nature of the dried gourd makes it perfect for carving, painting, dying, wood-burning, and I’m certain a lot more that I haven’t even come across yet!

There are a multitude of sources and farms from which to order gourds and supplies. They come either “cleaned” or “uncleaned”…. I haven’t yet cleaned a dried gourd, but from my reading it appears that cleaning the outside consists of soaking in water for 15-20 minutes and then scrubbing the dirt off. Cleaning the inside sounds a lot like cleaning a pumpkin to make a jack o’ lantern. I’m not going to promise anything about doing posts on cleaning and preparing gourds, as I would rather buy them “ready to go” and get down to business.

Two farms that seem to stand out from the pack (please note that I used the word “seem”, because I can’t claim to have ordered gourds before; I got mine from a traveling gourd salesman) are Welburn Gourd Farm and Leiser Farm, both located in California, which appears to be the gourd growing capital of the country.

Both have gourds of every variety, cleaned and uncleaned, which can be ordered online or by phone. Leiser Farms is located in Knights Landing, CA and can be reached via email at gleiser@afes.com, and by phone at (530)735-6677. Welburn Gourd Farm is located in Fallbrook, CA, and can be reached via email at info@welburngourdfarm.com, or by phone at 1-877-420-2613. Both have gourd festivals, special events, workshops, and all things gourd. Welburn even has a gourd newsletter and a free e-book for beginning gourd crafters.

You can bet I’ll be exploring further into this world of gourds.