June Snook
Botanical Illustrator, Gourd Artist
A Study of Pine Cones
The rim on this gourd is intricately cut. Much of June's art is reflective of the nature which surrounds her on her farm in Oregan.
About four years ago my husband got interested in the wood carving of decoys and animals. He started wood burning techniques for detail on his "creations". After helping him find information on techniques of wood carving and pyrography, I found the great book by Widess and Summit: "The Complete Book of Gourd Pyrography".......it was VERY inspiring.
We have a local farmer's market that offered fresh gourds for sale and I bought a couple and learned how to cure them and prepare them. As soon as I started my burning trials I realized just how fun gourd art actually is! It's like cutting butter, and the possibilities for creativity are endless.
Horses
Then I started searching the Internet for all the information I could find on gourd art. This is when I found the Northern Dipper website. I have used ALL of its resources. I even ordered seed and grew a large area of gourds that first year. Here in the Portland area of Oregon our growing season isn't as long and hot as Ontario, CA, but I did successfully raise about 6 large sacks of medium to small useable gourds. I learned and practiced pollination, which also allowed me to use some of my "botany-past"!
June, on left, judging a field trial on Echo
In addition to gourds I have other creative pursuits. After college I worked in research and as a medical illustrator for a medical college before becoming a Medical Technologist and X-Ray Tech. I had limited chances to pursue my arts and crafts need, until I retired from work. I love needlepoint and quilting. I have tried just about every type of craft imaginable! I am an avid gardener and have loads of yard work to keep me busy! On our farm I have been able to create an extensive array of heirloom roses. This hobby keeps me too busy in the spring and summer to work on gourds. My husband and I also enjoy catch and release fishing and duck and goose hunting!
My husband and I have field trialed upland game bird dogs for many years. This requires dogs and comfortable horses to compete. Recently, we have become breeders of a special gaited horse called: "McCurdy Plantation Horses"........which originated in Central Alabama from the early Tennessee Walking Horses. These horses do not trot and have an easy ambling gait and athleticism required to compete in field trials. They are also terrific pleasure horses. We raise 4 foals a year from our foundation mares and train the young horses to offer for sale for trail riders and field trialers. This business keeps us very busy as you can imagine. We never get too bored around here!
These gourd rattles are easy to make and are suitable for both adults and children. Northern Dipper have sold many dipper gourds to schools for music and art projects and a finished gourd rattle is a perfect gift for anyone who is musical or likes the unusual.
1.) Choose a dipper gourd that you like. It can either be straight handled or curly handled. As you can see Northern Dipper has bins of dippers in all different sizes and descriptions.
2.) Soak your gourds in warm soapy water. Some people add a bit of bleach. No matter what you use in the water, you will have to put something heavy on them as gourds float. (In some parts of Europe they still use gourds as floatation devices when teaching kids to learn how to swim.)
3.) Rough clean the gourds using a Silver Scrubbie. Let the water do a lot of the work for you. You don't need to totally scrub them at this point. When they are boiled, yes boiled, a lot of the outer stuff is easier to remove.
4.) Using a Proxxon jigsaw and footswitch Carolyn cuts the end off the gourds. Save the pieces you cut off as they will be used for the handle. The Proxxon jigsaws are great for gourds as they are light and make any cutting effortless. The footswitch makes it extremely safe. (Don't forget to wear a mask when cutting and sanding gourds.)
#5 - Boiling the gourds will harden the shells to produce
a nice crisp sound.
5.) All the pieces go into a large pot to be boiled. Boil for 20 - 30 minutes. Boiling helps loosen the inside pulp of the gourd as well as creating a very hard shell which results in the sound being very crisp. Be careful when removing them from the pot as the pulp inside will be very hot.
6.) Clean the inside of the gourd (after cooling) using a Northern Dipper long handled tool.
7.) Let the gourds dry for a day or two. Make certain they are completely dry.
# 8 - Gourd has 3 sections. Note: there is an extra piece in this photo (D). This is a leftover from another project that will be incorporated into one of the rattles.
8.) Make another cut close to the bulb of the gourd. Each gourd will have 3 sections as you can see in the # 8 photo. Number or letter the pieces.
9.) Lightly sand the ends of each piece. This is just to clean them up and lower the grain a bit. Glue togeather the sections of the handle. NOTE: When you are gluing the handle pieces togeather you are going to reverse them. What I mean is by reversing one or more of the middle pieces (depends if you have cut the handle into more than three pieces) they should now slide into each other. The reason for this is that you can use different pieces to create a brand new handle. ie In the above picture that piece labelled with a D does not belong. But by reversing piece C you can use this curly D piece with any of the bulbs or small pieces.
10.) Apply glue to the inside lip of the handle. Take a small wad of Kleenex and put it in the hole. This Kleenex will stop your noise-makers from leaving the bulb and travelling to the handle.
11.) Add your noise-makers to the bulb. Noise-makers can be dried beans or barley seeds, small pebbles or rice and a combination of other materials. Glue the handle to the bulb and let dry. Decorate as you wish.
12.) The handle of the gourd in the above picture was painted with black acrylic paint. Once dried I applied a coat of Sandalwood Gilders Paste. This produced a very rich brown. I then added light rubbings of Pinotage and African Bronze over the Sandalwood in different spots. It gave the handle a beautiful huey glow.
13.) Using the Proxxon power engraver I engraved a picture of Kokopelli and painted it black. I highlighted parts of his robe with African Bronze Gilders Paste. After it dried I quickly went over the outline with the engraver. It cleaned up any spots that may have leaked out of the line when I was painting. Seal with a coat of your favorite sealer. And please remember, always wear a mask when cutting, sanding or engraving.
Send in pictures of your gourd rattles and we will publish them. Have fun...Carolyn
To learn more about Proxxon tools click here.
To learn more about the long and short handled cleaning tools and Silver Scrubbies click here.
To learn about Gilders Paste click here.
To learn more about Raymond Powers ceremonial rattles abd how to carve them click here.
Gourd Growing In Sept
Some vines may be looking a little dry and ragged. It doesn't matter - don't harvest yet under any circumstances.
September means some time off for the gourd grower. The gourds are in their last 2 months of maturing and they can be left to Mother Nature to do just that. Stop pollinating (if you still are) – there is not enough time left for the babies to reach maturity so in a nutshell, you will be wasting your time. There is no need to water either.
Your gourds are large and most likely look mature. Do not be tempted, under any circumstance, to cut the gourd from the vine. The only thing you may want to do is check to make sure they are all sitting upright. Some may be looking a bit dryed but once again, they are not ready to harvest. A rule of thumb in a cold climate is to not harvest until the vines have been hit with a killing frost. This normally happens in October.
If a gourd is looking a little brown and soft around the top get rid of it. It cannot be saved - it is rotten and will continue to do so.
Powdery Mildew can still be a problem at this time of year. Powdery Mildew is a fungus caused by a spore, which is carried by the wind. It starts with small yellow spots on the leaves and once established will appear as small grayish white spots. Once it gets hold it will cover the plant and eventually kill it.
For more information on Powdery Mildew click here.
Cucumber Beetles: Watch your population and do not let it get too high. They will start eating into your fruit and will badly scar the shell. At this time of year however you will find that the cucumber beetle population has decreased somewhat.
For more information click here.
Dear Carolyn!
Hi there:
I really enjoy staining my gourd projects with leather stain and varnishing them when complete. Had a bit of a shock though when doing an outside show with some gourds exposed to the sun - how quickly the colours fade. Any suggestions as to how to prevent the fading? I have done bird feeders and don't always want to use acrylic paints, but it takes very little time for the leather dye to completely bleach out. Thanks for any ideas.
Mavis Wade
Dear Mavis,
Artists have found that most colorants are not totally colourfast, whether you use wood stains, watercolour paints, water-soluble felt pens or dyes. Leather dyes are a popular alternative to paint. They are easy to apply using a dauber, foam brush or piece of sheepskin and they dry uniformly. It is true however, that leather dyes on gourds can and will fade.
Dyes have an incredible range of colours that can be used separately or as a layering effect. The rich leather-like appearance that results with dyes is hard to beat. Dyan Mai Peterson, internationally known gourd artist, teacher and the author of the “The Decorated Gourd” uses leather dyes on her unique art. She will use 3 coats of dye and then spray with a couple of coats of a good UV sealer. This method will help alleviate fading. Some artists, when selling their work, will state on their tags “May fade when placed in extreme sunlight.”
You may want to use a combination of dyes and paint for your outside feeders. For your inside vases and containers you can feel confident that the dyes will hold their colour unless placed in a sunny window. The bottom line is, whether it’s gourd art or your favourite picture, its best to be protected from direct sunlight.
Many regards,
Caroline
To send in questions to Dear Carolyn! click here.
