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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

October update
















September was a hectic month, with two shows. Gary took his big dragon gourd to the Raleigh NC show, and I worked hard on my gourd and got it finished for the Ohio show.

Gary's won first in his division and Best of Show at NC as well as the Steven's Family award at the Ohio show. This is the equivalent of the Best of Show award in the crafted gourds division for Ohio.

My piece won first place in it's division as well as an award for special recognition....whatever that means. Anyway, I'm pleased since this was my "Murphy's Law" gourd. (As in, if anything can go wrong, it will.)

It started with my carving lesson. I was working away, concentrating hard, when I noticed that the drill bit was getting shorter. As I watched, the bit pulled back into the handle and was about to fall out onto my leg. In a panic, I reached over with my other hand to shut off the drill, and sent my gourd flying across the room. Of course it cracked!
After gluing it back together, and getting hubby to put the handle back on the drill I finished carving.

The painting and leafing went well, but when I went to insert the tapestry it wouldn't fit into the hole I had carved. Apparently the curve wasn't deep enough for the inside of the gourd, although it had fit nicely on the outside when I shaped it.
Using two part Sculpy epoxy, I thickened and shaped the inside of the opening to hold the insert. I had to cut a couple of rows off the bottom of the insert, and the edges of the design were too close but I got it in. Then using the epoxy I filled in the back edges to hold the insert in place.
As I was decoupaging the inside, the weight of all that epoxy overbalanced the gourd and it fell onto the floor again. Luckily this time it hit the open side and bounced. (must have been the epoxy)
Now the gourd was too heavy on one side for the base, so I had to fill in the bottom of the base to give it more weight. This thing could work as an exercise weight if nothing else!
After all these delays for repairs, I was down to one day to coil the 9 rows of design on the top rim.
Well I finished it at 3am on Friday morning and by the time I got all my packing done it was 5am. We left for Ohio at 8am, so I was one tired puppy.
However, I'm pleased with it as it is.

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful gourd, Catherine!! Very clever concept, too. Congrats on your award! YAY!

    Hugs,
    Leah

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