Fall 2010

Well, it's been a lovely hot summer, but it's time to get back to work. We didn't do the Goderich Celtic festival this year, so we had the entire summer to enjoy. Now it's time to gear up for the fall shows.

Gary has started his latest carving. He's always more intense and dedicated than I am, once he gets started. He carves for several hours at a time. I admire his determination.

So far he has rough-carved the base, the front and three sides of the canteen gourd that he will be constructing. He is doing a Mayan theme again.


This is the decorative shoulder that the gourd will sit on. It reminds me of a large hair barrett.







This is the rough base structure that will be assembed once everything is done. You can see the carved shoulder on the top.







He had to do some infilling in the centre of the gourd where the stem was, to make it level. The carving is very detailed and intricate. This is a fairly thick canteen gourd.








This is one side of the gourd. It has a Mayan warrior figure.











This is the other side of the gourd. It is a very confusing carving, depicting the warrior being swallowed by a giant snake. If you look carefully you can see the body of the snake at the bottom. His jaws are spread wide and the head of the warrior is coming out of his mouth. Mayan carvings are quite disturbing!







To relieve the gloom and doom of the more complicated carving, the one across the top is more light-hearted and simple. It depicts a relaxing jaguar.






He plans to insert another gourd inside to increase the depth of the carving, but we'll have to wait and see what that will look like. Stay tuned.

Art of Coiling and Carving classes

Coming in May 2011, to Epping, New Hampshire. See the flyer at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Blue-Whale-Arts/120803174626882

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.

Project update - done for now.

Good news, and bad news. The good news is that my carving lesson went well and I am happy with the results. The bad news is that the one section took me 6 hours, and there is no way I can have this gourd ready for the North Carolina show, because we leave tomorrow morning, and I have half a dozen errands to run today. I still have to paint, gold leaf and coil the rim before putting it together.



Gary is done, however. He just needs to seal the exterior and line the inside. His carving is exquisite, and yes I know I'm biased, but I've never seen anything as delicate and fine as his work.

Tapestry done

I'm done the tapestry section, FINALLY. My fingers are tender and the skin is peeling off the tips. There are 29 rows. Now I just have to figure out how to insert it into the side of the gourd. It was flat, and the gourd is round. It's curved now, because I heat molded it to the side of the gourd with a hair dryer. I'll need to adjust the shape of the cutout I planned.
Up close, it looks pretty confusing, but from a distance it looks somewhat like a flower. Ah well, the best laid plans of mice and men...

NC project update

I finished the base for my gourd. It's gold leafing with 8 rows of coiling. The design is supposed to be a leaf motif.
I have dowelled the top to fit into the top portion. I'll have to do this last so that I can carve and coil the bigger section without interference. If I get this thing ready for the show, it will be because I put it together at my son's house on Friday night. LOL

Today is my carving lesson. Not so easy being left-handed since I have to push the bit away from me instead of towards me. Hope I don't ruin my project.
The tapestry is nearly done. I've got 20 rows done and need to do about 4 more. I've learned a couple of things that I sort of knew, but ignored. One, a beige background doesn't stay beige. Even though I wash my hands after every row, and keep wipes ready to clean the wax off my fingers, the thread still picks up the dye from the coloured threads. I tried washing it (on the back) but that made it damp, and then the colour bled through even more. SIGH.
Also, trying to angle the edges is difficult. Oh well, if it wasn't a challenge, I'd probably lose interest.


Gary has finished the carving. This is a large gourd, and created a ton of sawdust, which of course is all over the house. It also smells very unpleasantly, which makes my house smell like a dirty wet dog.
The things I do for my art!
He has started painting it. The top will be a grey sponged technique. And the bottom will be painted as water and sky etc.

NC Project update

Gary has finished one section of the waves for his swimming dragons. The theme of the NC show is "by the seaside".
He had to add a few more waves than he planned because there was too much empty space.







I've painted the Bird of Paradise flower using a small brush and stroking on multiple layers of colours. I used eight different colours on the leaf and flower. I may still touch it up a bit.