Any other gourd crafters here?

[Scrambled Egg]

Scrambled,

Love the ornament idea! Time has been the hold-up here also, plus I have atleast 4 unfinished gourd projects that I need to finish before I should really start any more.

I bought those "gourd eggs" off ebay, they are a bit pricey but they are excellent to paint on. I made a teeny hole in the top and added a baby eye screw with some hot glue and ribbon and of course painted on them..alot of them I did with Carolina Tarheels on them and NC State Wolf paws for my co-workers..you would be very surprised at how many of them are still at work hanging in their offices!!! Every year I think I will use the rest of my gourd eggs and make some more and then another great craft idea catches my eye and takes up all my time!!! The birdhouses I did were floral and animal. Two were cats with the hole in the stomach. My drawing is passable, no famous artist here but I can draw most of what I can look at for a pattern. Those make very nice gifts. An older lady in the Habitat store was redoing her sunporch that year and I thought she was the sweetest person ever so I made and took her one and she still talks it about to this day when I see her in there. Ok, thank you Dawn,now I am all hyped up to work on my gourds again!!! lol!!! MY husband was so sick for hours after opening those gourds from the fumes they release, have to be careful with those, toxic, even poking the hole in the little ones made me queasy.

 

[redoak]

I was kicking myself all night for not saving my birdhouse gourd seeds. Using them as shingles is a great idea.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

That was a very cute and clever use of the seeds!!!

 

[WriterofWords]

I worked with a woman at HELSTF who made the wonderful gourd crafts. I was sent some seeds from Saudi Arabia by a friend and some of the gourds are up to 3 and 4 feet tall when they mature, and are used for storage. My friend made a 3 foot tall Santa gourd and sold it a craft fair for 250,,, told her I wanted my seeds back! lol~!

 

[Scrambled Egg]

No kidding!!!!

 

[Mojo Chick'n]

Quote:
Mere...

Way to go on the spelling of shekerie!

You only forgot the "i"...I never get close to spelling that one, without looking it up.

What kind of beads did you use? I have plans to make a few of them (gourds are ready to go) but can't decide on the beads.

Scrambled,

Love the ornament idea! Time has been the hold-up here also, plus I have atleast 4 unfinished gourd projects that I need to finish before I should really start any more.

My "projects-in-the-works" end up hanging all over the living room and Skip says it's like walking through an obstacle course...he's a foot taller than I am.

Dawn

I like the glass beads for it, I used some pony size I ordered from Firemountain Gems. I also have some wooden ones in there, and it is topped by some plastic skull beads

I'll have to take a pic and show it to ya. The one I made is so small it is more a rattle than a shekerie. I'd love to make a big one, though. But man those beads would cost some bucks to make one really big!!

This one is more hand held size (I guess it probably would not be considered a true Shekerie) but bigger hand held size.

I'll get pics tonight and post em for ya here.

meri

 

[Dawn419]

Moodene,

Thanks! Sorry to hear about your gourds/vines not making it!

Cats Critters,

I started out just growing them, too, then the crafting-bug bit me!

Scrambled,

"Eggs" were one of the first gourds I began growing. I used cut up pieces of them to make the "porch roofs" on the bird and toad houses.

I use the silicone to attach them to the "main" gourd.

I tried using pieces of pine cones for my shingles first but it was quite painful. Atleast the gourd seeds don't bite back!

redoak & WoW,

Just make sure you store the seeds in an old coffee can or something like that. The confounded mice decimated my crafting seeds that I was keeping in plastic storage bags.

Meri,

We order alot of our jewelry making supplies from Firemountain. We also have a friend that has a local bead store that we can get them from. It's great if we just need a few things as opposed to maikng a larger purchase. If we don't have what we're wanting, she'll add it onto her next order, which has been a big help!

Can't wait to see pix of your shekerie!

Dawn

 

[Becky89*]

I paint Swan Gourds and Penguin Gourds

They are awsome looking and I always get together with my sister and paint with her I'll take a pic of my penguin gourd and show you the next time I get a chance.

I really like how you turned them into bird houses. You may of said this all ready but what did you use to hallow them out?

 

[Dawn419]

Hi Becky!

Can't wait to see pix of your penquin gourds.

To hollow the gourds out/clean out the insides, I use just about anything that I can come up with: cut-up coat hangers, spoons of different sizes, melon-ball maker, etc.. Will post a pic of my "cleaners" here in a bit, I put all my gourd "tools" up when someone came to check out a fish tank we have for sale and forgot where I put the stuff.

***Edited to add:

Okay, here's a pic of a few of my scrapers that I use to clean the insides of the gourds.

From left to right: Shells (for masks or toad houses, where there is a large opening to get into), coat hangers (for bird houses and "opened" gourds) and a small bamboo stake (for birdhouses).

Dawn

 

[cknmom]

Dawn,
We talked about this either earlier this year or the end of last year. I STILL have my gourd sitting there. I am determined to do it in the new year. WE havwe a hillside that we are going to plant an assortment of gourds on this spring. There are so many things I want to make, I need assorted sizes.

I love the idea about the seeds for shingles.

Monica

I have been away for quite a while, how are you and Skip doing?