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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Wow!  I can't believe it's been nearly 2 years since my last post.  We have been on hiatus for a while.
I don't seem to have regained my interest in gourds, but Gary has started working again.  He has decided to produce some work for the upcoming Indiana show and is busy filling the house with gourd dust and Inlace dust.  He does like working with that stuff.

Work to date: Dragon's Eye View

A recurring theme that shows up in almost all Gary's work is Celtic knotwork.  He is fascinated by the unlimited number of patterns that can be created using intertwining lines.  Here is the base he is using for his Dragon's Eye piece.  As you can see, it is a celtic knot burned onto a gourd piece.  He originally intended to have the small egg gourd as support, but changed his mind because it affected the stability of the finished piece.
  


Another recurring theme is his love of dragons.  The uglier the better! The photo below shows half a canteen gourd with celtic knotwork dragons burned around the outside. The centre is done in coloured pencil, using Prismacolor. There is a rim of gold metallic foil around the drawing to separate it from the burned patterns. On the back of this half, which you can see in the photo of the finished front, is a rim of carved Inlace.  Notice the dowel in the bottom that will hold the piece together.
  


The front of the sculpture (below) is fully carved. It is another canteen gourd section, smaller than the first and will fit inside the larger canteen half.  The water and waves are carved from  two colours of Inlace.  The dragon hovering above the waves is carved into the gourd face and painted.  The outside rim of this canteen gourd is carved in another celtic weave.




Here is the front of the finished sculpture.  You can now see the carved Inlace rim on the larger canteen gourd that makes up the back half.  The small front fits inside the back piece and is doweled in place. 
   


Here is the mounted back section.

 



The last photo shows you the entire sculpture from the side.  Here you can see in more detail how the dragons weave in and out of each other.




4 comments:

  1. Yes, it has been a long time but worth the wait - what an amazing gourd. Thanks for sharing all those photos. I miss working on gourds but it's so much nicer not getting sick from the mold and dust. You probably won't remember or recognize my site but met and took some classes from you in San Diego years ago - fun times.

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    1. Thanks for your nice comment. Were you at the workshops in Quail Gardens? I have fond memories of that location. We really enjoyed our visit there and in San Diego. Your zentangles are impressive. Thanks for the link.
      Catherine

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  2. I sure hope David Wuttke is providing you with inlace at no cost. You are certainly good advertising for them!

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    1. David is our supplier for Inlace, but we haven't seen him lately. I think the only gourd show he does is Cherokee, and we can't make it this year.

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