Good Gourd Again!

The only limits to what you can make with gourds are set by your imagination. Over the years I have made rain sticks, lamps and lampshades, dolls and dolls houses, boxes, bird houses, peg baskets, bowls, earrings, bracelets and even a suit of armour! Here are some practical things you need to know to get you started.

Prepare:
First you need to clean your gourds. Fill a large sink or bowl with hot soapy water and soak for twenty minutes or more. if you have time it makes the process easier. Using a large copper dish scourer, begin to rub the gourd. The outer layer of skin should begin to slough away. This is messy job but it is exciting to watch the patterns appear. If your gourd has no mould, the epidermis layer may become hard and waxy. If you are planning to paint your gourd later, you will need to scrape this off in the same way.

Design:
Draw your cutting lines on your gourd once you have decided what you are making – the gourds will usually tell you what they want to be! A slice cut from a gourd I was planning to make into a thumb piano looked like part of the famous Madonna bra and set me off on my female suit of armour – the half made thumb piano is still in the shed!

Cut:
A vice or rubber mat to secure your piece while you cut can help prevent accidents. Cutting tools may include Stanley knives, hacksaws, a jigsaw, Dremel or even a band saw for larger gourds. Unless you are planning to rejoin the pieces afterwards, don’t worry if your cuts are a little rough as edges can be treated like timber and sanded smooth later.
It is recommended that you wear a dust mask while cutting, some people have an allergic reaction to gourd dust and everyone will notice it tastes bitter. You may also like to wear rubber gloves if you have very sensitive skin.

Scrape:
Now you have opened the gourd you will see the soft and spongy inner layer that holds the seeds. There is also sometimes a satiny coating on the inside of the shell you may choose to leave. Scrape the seeds and the lining away with a spoon or metal scraper until it is as clean as you would like. You can sand the inside for a finer finish.

Decorate:
I treat gourds as I would timber. After sketching designs on the gourd, I enhance them by burning the pattern into the gourd with a soldering iron. The soldering iron can also be used to burn small holes in the gourd. The designs are then filled using wood dyes which enhance reather than hide the natural patterns of the gourd. For small areas I use a paintbrush, larger ones a cloth dipped in dye to spread it easily and evenly. Acrylic and enamel paints both work well too, as do coloured inks. Remember that any stain used on the inside of the gourd will be brighter in colour. Thicker shelled gourds can also be carved like you would a lino cut, using the same tools.

Protect:
Protect your surface with varnish a wax finish, furniture polish or varnish on the outside.

The bitter taste of the gourd can be removed by repeated filling and rinsing with water with a teaspoon of bicarb added to it until the taste has gone, if you wish to drink from it. Traditionally, the gourds used for water “sweated’ through the skin which kept the water cool for those cowboys in the desert. You may prefer seal with several coats of safflower oil, letting each coat harden between applications to prevent leakage.

Construct:
Drill, cut, glue, hinge, lace, weave upon, bead, wire, cut and generally treat like a thin piece of wood.
Attach beads, driftwood, macramé, brass rings or gourd shapes for handles
To make the suit of armour I cut, shaped and decorated individual pieces of gourd then pierced them so I could thread cut “brass” curtain rings through the holes which I then soldered up to join the pieces together. You have to be rather insane to do this… it took me over a year.
If you use the round Cantina gourds for boxes the lid you cut will sit back onto the bottom if you cut carefully and don’t sand too much away.
Line gourds if you wish by gluing fabric, soft leather or fake fur inside.
Hinges can be made with soft leather or small jewelry box type hinges glued or tacked on.

If anyone has a picture of something insane they have made from gourds or a question about gourds, please post a comment and I will do my best to answer.
That would be totally gourdeuos!

nirala

Good Gourd

At Summertime Farm, Jane’s pumpkin harvest included a few lovely yellow ornamental gourds. In our temperate climate, these are more easily grown than the hard shell varieties. They grow in a marvelous range of colours and shapes and have smooth, warty or ridged skins in the same conditions as pumpkins, members of the same family of Cucurbits. The drawback is they are thin skinned and unless sealed in some way, don’t keep well. Small green thin skinned gourds were also eaten as a vegetable and the bitter seeds of all gourds was used as a remedy for intestinal parasites.

Hard shell gourds are more durable, seeds and fragments found in South America have been dated at 10,000 BC. This predates the use of pottery for carrying, cooking and serving food. Intact gourd vessels have been found from 100 BC.

Hard shell gourds require rich soil, lots of water and fertilizer and either a minimum of two months of temperatures over 40˚C or 3 – 4 months full sunshine. In southern areas, they are best started indoors and planted out into tree bags when the threat of frost is over. Feed them well until the creamy white flowers set fruit and give them a deep watering twice a week.

The vines are vigorous and can grow up to a hundred metres long in good conditions so don’t attempt them if you live in a unit! They don’t have to be grown along the ground as they will happily clamber over fences, trellises and pergolas and climb trees. Don’t allow any of the giant varieties to do this … they can weigh many kilos and will pull down large branches and fences. Long gourds including dippers are best grown on support if you want them to grow nice and straight. At this stage you can train them to grow bent, twisted or even tie knots in them if you really want to! I tend to let nature do its thing and take inspiration from the results.

Allow the plants to die back completely before harvesting the gourds. Discard any with holes in, they won’t dry well. If the weather remains dry, gourds can be left where they lie or hang until they have lost a lot of their weight and turned from a pale green to a beige/brown colour. Then you can store them under cover, off the ground or on a dry surface. You will need to check them occasionally as the rats enjoy a feed of gourd seed and love to nest inside them.

At this stage they often look mouldy… don’t worry, this is the outer layer of skin that is removed before using, the mould often creates wonderful random patterns in autumn colours.

Start planning your gourd crop for next year now. There are some wonderful varieties available in all shapes and sizes. Look out for this years crop at markets now and check out seed catalogues for next year. Next time, I`ll tell you how to deal with them and show you some things I have made that I think are totally gourdeous!
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