Newsletter

Reggie Eakin: Promoting The Prosperity And Preservation Of Gourd Art

Reggie Eakin, a native of Savannah, Georgia, is stricken with 'gourditis.' Reggie's fifteen year affliction is defined as an addictive, compulsive disorder; symptoms include the need to touch, own or craft members of the Cucurbitaceae family. Everyone from his small town knows this about Reggie along with the three gourd farms within driving range. It was confirmed a few years ago when all the members of his choir received painted Christmas gourds as gifts.

His wife, a teacher, has encouraged him along the way with "Reggie" projects. One year she wanted a large gourd Easter bunny for her 3rd grade classroom. She had seen a wood-burned design and thought that Reggie could make it for her. He pulled out his old wood-burning tool from his Boy Scout days...it didn't turn out well.

A few days later he saw an advertisement for the Gourd Retreat Southern Style that was being held near Savannah. When he entered the classroom building he could not believe the scene before his eyes, So much gourd art - Reggie ended up attending every class.

He made the rabbit for Janet and hasn't stopped making gourd art since. He states that every gourd has different possibilities. Some he knows immediately what they can become and others he keeps because they are interesting.

Like many artists Reggie comes from a family where art and crafts were a part of everyday life. His father painted and carved (whittled), his sister drew and painted, the brother was a master wood worker and his mother quilted and crocheted. There were always numerous projects on the go in Reggie's house.

Reggie himself has taken no formal art classes but has taken many non-credit courses at the local University. He has painted in acrylics (he claims that he is a terrible painter and a brush turns into the Tasmanian Devil once in his hands), has drawn in pastels and still draws in ink. He is an avid photographer and he sculpts in clay. Gourd art allows him to combine all of these skills making each gourd a new adventure.

Reggie's own approach to design is that he sees everything in a frame with an orderly perspective. First he draws the idea and then he'll draw the gourd shape around the subject idea. Once he has
a firm design he scans the drawing into his laptop where he uses an Adobe program to remove eraser lines and make changes. If he is planning for a class project he simplifies the design.

For Reggie his career in teaching began at his local gourd patch, then at the Georgia Gourd Education Days. He moved on to the State Gourd Festivals and Gatherings and has, throughout the years, watched the level of participation drop. He says that many people believe the drop in attendance is the result of the economy or the maturation of the art form and its organizations but Reggie believes it is more than that.

He states that the onslaught of the rubber stamp culture of plastic and computerization has dazzled youth and adults alike. He has observed that everywhere we visit we see Wal-Mart type shopping mall architecture crowding out the local cultures and surroundings. Gourd enthusiasts from Africa to China to the Americas are struggling to maintain the husbandry, use and art of gourds.

Reggie continues by saying that the Arizona Gourd newsletter and the Gourd Fever newsletter allows us (gourd people) to become part of a larger community/family. Travel and venue rental costs have increased limiting many the ability to physically participate so the newsletters are a binding source.

He liked what Bonnie Gibson and Northern Dipper were doing and saw a niche where his writing and ideas could fit. He started a website and a monthly gourd newsletter and is happy to say that others are using his published gourd history for lectures and his gourd techniques for teaching.

He finishes by saying "We need to offer free access to our ideas and art in order to draw in others and cause gourd preservation and art to prosper."

When asked about his personal life Reggie smiles and tells the story of how he and his wife Janet grew up in the same neighbourhood in Savannah, Georgia. They attended the same schools and church. He hadn't paid much attention to her and then one day - WOW! It took quite some time to convince her that he was the one and this month they are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Reggie is quick to say that Janet is the most attractive and intelligent person he knows. They have two daughters and six grandchildren ranging from 3 years to 22 years.

To those of you that don't know me I really like gourds. I have a passion for the extra-long handled dipper gourds but I also love the really big gourds. If my gourds were kids they would be fat, lazy and very spoiled. I tend to over-water, over-feed, over-spray, pretty much over everything. This year was different; Mother Nature presented me with a couple of opportunities to learn something about gourds.

The last few years my large gourds were less than stellar. This year I was able to extend my growing season by germinating my seeds and then having them planted in pots at a local nursery on April 1st. I picked them up in mid-May and they were full, large healthy plants.

I think Mother Nature must have wanted to teach me a lesson about extending my growing season because from May 15 to June 15 we had only one warm day. With rain or drizzle almost every night and cool temperatures I had almost no growth or pollination take place.

By late June our temperature and rainfall returned to normal and by mid-July my gourd plants were full but still with not much spread. I can remember it was July 20th when I walked through the large gourds and counted 20 gourds starting.

I realized that it was the first time I had walked through the gourds at all this year. I had not watered and strangely, there were no weeds(Too cool for even weeds to germinate?) I had only 2 months left before the first frost and I decided that there just wasn't enough time for the gourds to mature. I put the tiller on the tractor and started tilling them under.

All the smaller gourds went and next the snake gourds. As my tractor tires sat over the large gourd plants I hesitated. I decided I wouldn't till those 20 large gourds under and at the same time decided I wouldn't waste any time on them either.

Then August hit. Mother Nature wanted to teach me something else. August was the hottest and driest in South Dakota's recorded history. Still I had decided to leave the gourd plants alone even though they grew 5 feet from the water spigot. I walked by these plants everyday and each day of the hot and dry weather they seemed to look better and better.

With September came normal temperatures and rain, and one more surprise from the great one - no frost at night. Our area did not get its first frost until October 11th.

So now here I am thinking about how I went through my 1st season without watering, weeding or feeding my large gourds. In my opinion I had thought that Mother Nature gave them too much water in the spring and then left them too cold. She threw too much hot and dry at them in August and left them almost 30 days too long on the vine before the first frost in the fall. As it turned out however I just ended my best year ever raising large gourds. (I have over 20 gourds in the 46 - 50 inch around size)

Is Mother Nature trying to tell me something? Let me just say that I like growing large gourds, but after this year I must openly admit that maybe I don't know quite as much as I thought I did! Ken