Gourd Crafts

Contains twenty easy projects using gourds to create candleholders, a birdhouse, drinking cups, bracelets, and bowls.

New in Paper With a simple gourd, it's easy to make an astonishing variety of bowls, boxes, baskets, pitchers, and dippers, as well as musical instruments and toys. Choose from the many inviting shapes, from the kettle to the canteen, the bushel basket to the snake. Carve, burn, wax, varnish, and color them with paints, dyes, oils, and markers to work their smooth, three-dimensional surfaces. Basic, time-tested techniques for making practical works of art show you how to grow, dry, and clean them, or where to buy gourds readymade for projects such as a child's elephant pull toy, planters, lamps, and birdhouses. "[A] collection of uncomplicated, step-by-step projects for...large gourds, which are fun to work with and readily available...a good selection."--Library Journal

Step-by-step instructions explain how to complete a variety of projects using gourds of all shapes and sizes.

Jim Widess and Ginger Summit, the best-selling authors of The Complete Book of Gourd Craft and Making Gourd Instruments, have done it again: they’ve produced another winner to delight the many crafters who work with gourds. Large, lavish, and astonishingly comprehensive, this breathtaking volume introduces every tool and every technique associated with gourd carving, offers fabulous projects that advance in difficulty, and presents a gallery of works designed to inspire. See how to choose and prepare a gourd, impress the surface with a design, and work with green gourds. The magnificent methods of decorative carving covered include fretwork, engraving, chip carving, carving with gouges, relief carving, inlay, and deep relief or sculptural carving. Throughout, color photographs of exquisite carved gourds present crafts styles from countries around the world. A Selection of the Crafters Choice Book Club.

22 projects; 55 decorative techniques; 300 inspirational designs.

What did Americas first inhabitants use for cooking and eating? What did the stranded characters of television's Gilligan's Island use to prepare and eat food? \nTaking her cue from these questions, author Angela Mohr demonstrates how to create authentic vessels by using gourds. A watering can, cooking utensils, and bowls are created in this step-by-step instruction book, as Mohr brings fun and authenticy to her gourds. \nHistorical re-enactors will find inspiration fhere for their authentic life-style performances and drama students, the rights tools to pursue their craft.

Looking for something different to inspire the artist within you? Why not try a gourd! Theyre fun to work with, so practical, and make great gifts. You can paint, decoupage, carve, mosaic, woodburn, or leave them in their natural state. Once you start, the possibilities are endless. So for people wanting either a new craft or a new medium for an old craft, give a gourd a go! Youll be surprised and delighted with what you discover in the gourds and in yourself. Here, I show you how to grow and decorate these amazing natural art mediums. Read on.

Provides examples from twenty artists along with information on their tools, methods, and influences.