The Stuff We've Been Doing!

The Crackled Apples have been so busy, we can't even spell it! First, there was the all-day gourd marathon at the end of summer that some of us did with the Dappled Apples. Phew!  What a day THAT was!  Painting, gutting, sawing, boring, sanding, fitting...it was AWESOME!  It was like a dream day for the gourd world. Several projects came out of it by nightfall.

 A cannonball gourd was gutted and drilled with holes. Alcohol inks were used to color the exterior, followed by spray acrylic. The holes were then filled with glass beads and a clamp light affixed to the interior. Believe me, the picture does NOT do this piece justice!

Another gourdhead, an herbalist, used pressed bleeding heart flowers to decorate an egg gourd. Again, the picture does NOT do it justice.

The big project being pursued is with a cross between a wart gourd and a large kettle gourd. The artist envisions a Santa head and popped off the warty nubs to expose the area for a mustache and beard. Using a sculpting material, she began to make a face. It will be interesting to see this project evolve! It is surprising how thick those nubs are, and how much sanding it took to smooth down the divots that were left behind when they were popped off.

Keeping Cracklin' along my friends!  It won't be long until it's time for The Gathering, where gourds meet Native American culture!