From Plain to Beautiful

My daughter is a gourd artist and does beautiful work with gourds. Someone asked me how she did it and I told her it takes a lot of work just to get the gourd ready. I know this because once my daughter had me wash some gourds and it took about an hour to clean, scrape, and get one gourd ready. As I wandered through the fair grounds in Casa Grande, Arizona where they have an annual gourd show,  I came upon a poster of the different kinds of gourds. This surprised me because I had no idea there were that many different shaped gourds.

 There were about twenty large bins with the different sizes of gourds ranging from small to large people to buy.  When the gourds are purchased, they then have to be soaked to loosen the skin and washed by scraping to make them smooth. And that is hard work!

What amazes me is that even though there are about two hundred exhibitors, there aren't many duplicates.  Every artist has his or her unique way of creating art.

Of course, I see some gourds I like, but my favorite are the ones my daughter creates.  Below are a few of the many she has made and sold. This year her hedgehogs were a big hit and I can't believe I did not get a picture of them. I did manage to steal a picture that my daughter had posted of her many hedgehogs. She even had to leave her post, while her husband took over the booth, to work on completing a hedgehog that a person had requested!

The Running of the Gourds Festival is a fun and exciting place to hang out. There is continuous music; blue grass and Mariachi. A country and western singer plus a Native American dancer performing on stage for every one's entertainment! Many food booths send delicious aromas wafting about and places to buy drinks kept visitors full and happy.

 

"In gourd art there are no

mistakes just unique creations!"

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