those are realy impressive. very nice work for someone new to using gourds

Rita, there are some lovely pieces in your photo file.
Keep up the good work.

Jan

Hi Rita, Very nice artistic work on your gourds, both on woodburning and painting. I've used oil pencils and water color pencils on both gourds and wood and find them easy to use. I'm not much at painting but after I've burned a picture on a gourd or wood I find that adding color using those pencils is like coloring something in a coloring book. Keep up the nice work. Gene

Thanks all!
That little gourd was an experiment and it looked funny just with the woodburning. I got the oil pencils a couple of weeks ago and wanted to try them - so I experimented on the experiment! My husband is a geographer so he said it looked like a Land Use map of Japan. It does look like a neophite cartographer was on the job - Rand McNally will not be contacting me soon I guess. :::sigh::: I sure have a long way to go but it is a start!

Gardenkiwi...I was posted several years ago in Lima, Peru. Our family lived there five years and one of the artesan things we always saw for sale in local craft shows were different shapes of gourds that had been charred slightly everywhere on their perimeter. Then the indians would scratch designs or drawings with a sharp pointed object. The scratching revealed the uncharred yellow/brown underneath the charred outside. The charred outside didn't rub off so I assume they sprayed the gourds with something like clear, high gloss polyurethane. Laughing...you can always spot someone that's lived in Peru...they'll have several gourds done like this in their homes.

Some of the gourds were truly unique and beautiful. I never saw any painted but that's obviously something else that could be done...but not a lot of reason then to char the outside.

Hope someone finds this interesting.

Peru eh? I have seen photos of the gourd technique you are talking of. Have read tons about it and how to do it - but hesitate to get soot on or charring a gourd! A lot of the mate gourds are charred I see - but then some of them also have that lovely silver work done on them - I covet em for sure! Have you tried charring your gourds and patterns? Do you have photos to share? Would love to see them.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and observations - I love knowing what others like, do and want to try.
Cheers - Rita in Michigan

Rita...

I don't have any of the gourds we bought while we lived in Peru. It's ironic. I'm sure we bought dozens and dozens of them while we were there...mostly as gifts. I wish I had some. The benefit of actually living in Peru meant that we could really shop for the best or at least ones that we valued more than others. I've seen those gourds for sale in stores here in the U.S. but they seem like the cheapest ones with the least elaborate decoration.

I also admire the mate gourds with silver. I traveled to Argentina and Paraguay fairly often...but once again I don't have any of those gourds...wish I did now.

What lovely gourds. I like the more natural ones in your album best, but that's just my personal preference. How did you get the lovely coppery sheen on that one with the narrow neck?

gardenkiwi-

I love your gourds - they are very nice!
I have to ask though - where did you get those tiny little knit hats for those adorable penguins??

Hi again - on the shiny gourd with the shimmery surface - that was from a class I took at the Ohio gourd show - I would have to look it up and my instructions for that are downstairs and I can't get there right now. I remember we used all different colors of paints and those were blended with varnish before painting on the gourd.

The little hats on the penguins I crocheted - I wasn't about to pay out money for little baby knitted booties that had the toe cut off that were recommended! I like to crochet and came up with those - I used baby yarn that is soooo soft and it sure didn't take much for each one! I think they are cute little hats!

Happy Easter from snowy Kalamazoo Michigan! brrrrr
Rita

I have one of those charred gourds with an etched image. I'm not positive where it came from; my uncle (who travelled quite a bit) gave it to my dad. The bottom is etched "Cesar Aquino Veli" and stamped "Peruana." The detail is very impressive, and, for the life of me, I cannot figure out how it was done!

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Gardenkiwi-your gourds are magnificent. Did you seal your gourd that you painted with the oil pencils? I can't paint, but I can fill in the blanks, so I thought I'd like to try this with birdhouse gourds, but they'd have to be sealed to be placed outside.