The Gourd Girl

My major in college was Illustration, but everyone was required to take a semester long 3-d class. While everyone was working with wood, I brought in a tote full of gourds. Wait- let me start at the beginning. Listen: growing up I hated gourds! My mom would try for mother-daughter bonding time, with gourd crafts. Oh, how I hated gourds! What teenage girl, artist even, wants to work with a medium that you have to scrub mold off of before you can even begin to work with it? That was a big NO thanks, I'll be in Katlandia, drawing mermaids and fairies. Still, I decided to work with gourds for my college project, due mainly to the fact that I had gourds around the house, wood... not so much. And my professors loved the project, and told me gourds were definitely the way to go, for me. But.. but, the whole MOLD issue, not to mention the need for a really good dust mask if you are opening those babies up, and a small aresenal of power tools.. oh no thank you. I'll be in Katlandia, drawing pretty girls with butterflies.
Still, every Christmas my mother did a local art fair, and I would always make a bunch of holiday gourds to sell. And I was showing up at the local Gourd Show to buy gourds, and mingle with gourd growers and enthusiasts. (Can you imagine? These people wear GOURD HATS!) And I was painting, carving, weaving, and sculpting on more and more pieces. Which led to entering gourd pieces in art contests, which led to placing, which led to big pink rosettes that said, 'Judges Choice!" and "First Place!" Which led to my gourd work being in galleries. Which led to people only remebering me for the work I did, "Oh hey, aren't you that Gourd Girl?"
The entire time I'm trying to convince myself, that really, I'm not all that into gourds.
Oh, but how I love sculpting. And isn't it convienent when you have a nice, all natural, armature just sitting about?
Oh dear, I really think I might be that gourd girl.
I don't really share too much of the gourd work I do here, because this is Katlandia, home of mermaids and fairies and whimsical paintings of girls with birds and butterflies and flowers. Not gourdlandia, home of all the other things I do... but they keep sneaking in here and there. Gourds are tricky little things, yes they are. I'll start with the Santas. After years and years of doing holiday shows, I just make Santas without a sketch before hand. Straight from my head to the gourd.
This guy's photo looks kind of like a mug shot... whoops. Please excuse the cell phone pictures! He's sculpted with hand-made paper mache pulp, paper clay, and polymer clay on a banana gourd



Another banana gourd, and a Tenessee spinner make the base for this Santa, he is sculpted with polymer clay, then painted. His hat is fully sculpted, but I only have a decent picture of his front. >_<;; yarg! He's my workshop Santa, making toys for Christmas. (I even sculpted that little candy cane in his pocket)



Here is a group shot of the last three. I love that other Santa's expression. You can't really ever get tired of painting Santa, you can change his face in so many ways and everyone still understands who it is. He is made with a banana gourd, Tenessee spinner, and sculpted with polymer clay.



And here is a better picture of the blue and teal polka-dotted Santa ornament.
I really enjoy using nontradition colors, years of straight red and white Santas gets super old!
His face is sculpted with handmade paper mache pulp, it really makes him look ancient!


I have a lot more I can share, you start the Christmas season early in the crafting world! By the time Christmas rolls around I need a nap!

Mad Tea Party

Somewhere in Katlandia an entire group of characters live in a mint green house. They have been waiting since last year for another mad tea party.

The painting is so large, in fact, that it hasn't been able to be seen until today. She's waited and waited and waited to be introduced into the world.


I made a tea pot especially for the occasion, because I don't have my own. (Out of gourd, of course!)


I do, however, own a tea cup, mug, and saucer.

Everyone can share! I have a lovely flower tea...
Would you like a cup?

Or two?

How do you take yours? With Cheshire or without?

Getting here is sort of difficult. There is an enchanted forest you have to travel through, just to get to the mint green house in Katlandia.

It is dense and humid, it will *wreck* your perfectly styled hair.


Dangerous creatures lurk around every branch.

Or maybe not so dangerous, just your friendly neighborhood floating Cheshire cat head. These guys give terrible directions, and don't care at all about the frizz situation. You wanted to get to the Mad Tea Party you say? Eat some of this mushroom.

Yeah, I wasn't born yesterday, buddy. Would you trust a cat with a grin like that? Oh well...


Well, what do you know. The crazy cat was right.

Tea party time!


I hope you enjoyed your little stay here in Katlandia! Be sure to watch out for crazy Cheshire cats as you are traveling to other bloglands, you never know if they are going to trick ya.

Thank you Miss V for hosting such a fun event. ^_^ I love being silly.

Past work- Gourds.

This is a small selection of the gourds that I created last year, there are two or three in the mix that I did this year, but mostly all of these are samples of my work from 2007. If you click the mosaic you can see the pieces in a much larger view.




These are all the gourds that I had in the gallery, a professional photographer took some great photos of the pieces for me. Most of the pieces for the gallery were natural woven bowls, created with materials native to Florida. For Christmas I made a few ornaments to sell there as well, you can see one little Santa ornament found his way into the first group photo there at the bottom.





This grouping is of the gourds that I took pictures of myself, I'm not that great at it ^_^ They are the more experimental pieces as well; mixed-media pieces & rims, painted designs, dreamcatchers and such. Pieces like these, and the ones in the gallery, all get taken to craft shows with me.



And lastly here is a tiny showing of all the Christmas pieces I end up making for the craft show season. You can see little snippets of the craft booth in there as well. A lot of the pieces light up with Christmas lights, or open, or hold cards. I design all my own pieces, and never repeat a design. This mosaic doesn't show the 200+ ornaments that I will paint for the show. I get very very tired of painting Santa.

This year I have a lot of highly sculpted pieces with the gourd being used as armature, I can't wait to get pictures of those!

Gourd & Paper clay mermaids, faeries, a mushroom, and a bird in a party hat.

Group shot!

I had made a lot of little mermaids and a chubby gourd bird and a gourd fairy for Ms V's Mad Tea Party... but then I killed my camera, Boo! So, with the little sister's help, I got to take a lot of lovely photos of those pieces outside. They are all gourd with polymer clay / papermache & clay sculpting, and I painted everything with acrylics and mica powders.




Chubby bird in a party hat.
(Funny, he's pink, but definately a boy in my brain.)
Gourd with paperclay beak, paper party hat, and feather tail.








This mermaid has a polymer clay face, with paper mache/paper clay hair and arms, and a paper mache fin. She's sculpted on a Tenessee spinner gourd and a banana gourd.





Gourd faerie!
Tennessee spinner and banana gourds, with paper clay... and silk flowers/ribbon/and some wire & tulle wings.








This is my gypsy queen mermaid. I used the same Tennessee spinner/banana gourd combo with paperclay and paper mache. But then I made a headdress/crown out of ribbon, feathers, beads and rhinestones and I dressed her in some fabric bits. She has multicolored yarn for hair that I styled.
Lots of glue-gun action for this.






Two views of my gourd mushroom. I made it from a banana gourd (notice a trend? ^_^) and a scrap gourd piece. It was painted with a very fun silk-dye technique. It looks perfect outside.






I think this mermaid is my favorite, or at least today she is. Same construction method as before, paperclay & mache over gourds, but I sculpted a short hair-style for her, and made a little blue eyelash yarn boa.

All my mermaids are hand-painted, I used a lot of mica powders and metallic paints for the tails, they are super gorgeous and sparkley.





I almost forgot Marilyn, sans wings, I glued them on later.

(I decided on a different pair 3 times.)

Paper mache and paper clay. No gourds! Amazing ^_^

My first Art Doll! (with wired arms, wheee!)

I just wired the arms of this sweet little art doll I made, so now they are poseable. I'm in love! I made her out of gourds, paper mache, and paper clay... and painted her features. I also hand made her outfit, no sewing because I don't have a machine, but it is glued together with tacky glue and golden heavy gel.. I constructed it like I would if I were to sew it, and glued the seams, thankfully I was using clear tacky glue, otherwise I don't know how long that would have taken! All the muslin is hand-dyed/painted/distressed and I never throw away ribbon/yarn/fabric scraps so I had a lot of miscellaneous fabrics and ribbons and buttons that I added, on her back there is a little flower I made out of fabric scraps and beads. I really like the 'shabby chic' look she has. Her hair is lamb's wool that curls up wonderfully.... but then I thought she needed something, so I added a hat, made out of the same fabric and ribbons scraps as her dress. That part was really exciting, because I've never made anything like a hat ever... its not as easy as I originally thought. I can't wait to make more pieces like this! I want to make a Santa with the frayed-edge-pieced-together look that I did here.

(The blue in the bottom photo is tape, because I couldn't decide on the exact placement of her arms when I had the camera.)

Whats new?

.Me? Just been busy painting and doing those sorts of things. I've got one painting that I keep re-painting every once in a while, I've been taking pictures of my process and keeping a small record of where the painting has been. Or what it has been, any how. This is the newest version. I like a lot of the parts of it, and I don't like some of it. I'm not sure if that green hair will stay.

And:

The mermaid I've been sculpting for the boy's mom is finished. Waaaaaaay late for her birthday, but the boy doesn't think it will be a problem (his mom loves my work! Yay!) So here is a picture for the blog before she gets mailed out. Man o Man was that bead and wire tiara a paint in the hands. I will definately make more, though. ^_^

Hectic Weekend!

I made this pink sweetie bird (its only one, just two views) out of gourd, paper, and paper clay. Her beak is a bit of paper clay, her wings, twirly curl, and tail are paper. She is so sweet, I want to sculpt a nest for her. And bunches of bird friends... I can also make her into an ornament, so I can't decide now if she should be sitting or hanging. Pink Sweetie is only one of the things that completed this busy busy weekend...

After Wednesday of last week things took a turn for the crazy and hectic over here in Katlandia. On Thursday I got a call from a mystery number, which turned out to be my mum. She had been trying to rescue a stray cat and kitten from her work, and the cat would have none of it. She ended up getting scratched up pretty badly on her hand. That is an understatement, of course, but medical descriptions are always sort of nasty. Let's just say the cat scratched through a blood vessel and well, it was messy. Mum was whisked away to the hospital, and could I please stay with my little sisters for the evening?
They aren't exactly little anymore, but it is always fun having a sleepover with my sisters. Mum came home late late that night, groggy from the medicine they put her on and went to bed.

Yet, our adventures were not over! Apparently the antibiotics weren't enough, because she had to go back to the hospital with an infection and be treated again. Not fun!

The oldest of my three little sisters was at a party and jumped feet first into a shallow bit of lake, and broke her ankle, so now she has a cast on. I believe it was only a hairline fracture or something like that, so she will only need the cast for a month or two. She was more upset because her junior Prom is soon, and she didn't want to go on crutches.

Plus, on Friday! My Dad went to the courthouse and married his long-time girlfriend. Hooray! They didn't want a fancy ceremony, but there will be a big party on the beach soon. (This is Florida, we could have had one on Saturday... but broken legs and mangled hands ruined a lot of plans.)

Everyone is in better spirits now that the weekend is over. It sure was a long one. Of course, even in all that chaos we had a lot of downtime. I worked on a couple of pieces, and happened to bring home a lot of fun things to play with. Little sister number two was given a new set of art supplies (from a random stranger) included in the set were a pack of pantone tria markers, micron pens, and a lot of drafting supplies. I love markers, especially these really nice ones, my prismacolors are almost dried out. So we spent the day drawing and coloring pictures with the pens and markers.


My Invisible Heart I used tracing paper to trace and perfect an image from my sketchbook, but the carbon paper I have left blue marks all over my page. I'll have to figure out another way to transfer the image onto my paper. Oh man, these markers were so much fun. I borrowed a bunch of them when I left, to be able to color at home.


Plus I found my sparkley-glitter fairy ornament from Christmas. I borrowed the digital camera, so I can take pictures of all sorts of things now! The scanner is awesome, but, uhm, not for 3-d objects ^_^

The fairy is covered in glitter. It is Everywhere. I think she is made out of resin. At least, her head/torso and arms are. Her legs are cloth, with wire to pose. The arms are pose-able as well, and she hangs. I customized a fairy like this for my friend's girlfriend, my older sister, and the boy's mom for Christmas. Now I have one left... hmm. I wonder what I am going to do with it.

Now I could only figure out how to take nice pictures with this camera.Instead of being able to take awesome pictures, I take okay pictures and then edit them! Ha! This mermaid is sculpted with paper clay over gourds. I used some of my favorite yarn for her hair. I am making her for my boyfriend's mom, her birthday is this month.
The boy's mom loves handmade gifts... so far I have made her a gourd purse (it is so awesome, it has two koi in blue and pink. Next time I am over at her house I will have to get a photo) a wood-burned cigarbox, a fairy, and now this mermaid.