Be inspired as you view my favorite beaded gourds and learn some tips.
Here’s where a picture is worth a thousand words to challenge your imagination!
Where there were gourds, there were beads!
It wasn’t enough for some artists to paint, carve, or burn a gourd. Add the embellishments of a few or even many beads and create a masterpiece. Interestingly, decorating gourds can be traced back to ancient Africa. Here is a very old beaded gourd made in West Africa that still impresses.
Beads are usually attached to the rim of the gourd. Holes are drilled at equally distant points, and the beads are loaded onto the wire before they go into the hole. Then, they are wrapped around the top of the rim and go through the second hole. The weight of the wire varies as the hole and the wire vary. The first tip I learn about this process was to secure a bead larger than the hole at the end of the wire, and then I add a drop of glue to secure it. The wire won’t escape through the hole when you pull on it.
Other tools you might need are beading needles and glue. E1000 has been my choice, but many like a clear superglue gel. Another favorite is the Beacon Multi-Grip
Notice in my examples below that the rim is not always at the top, and the beads vary in size and even include pieces of shards as beads.
Create a Bead Fringe
Another rim technique is to use the beads as fringe. Here, the beads are strung on thread or plastic wire.
Place Your beads in the center of your Gourd
Sew them into the surface or cut a space and connect the negative area with beads
Chain Ball Technique
This is popular right now. Using seed beads on a long nylon thread, you glue or use beeswax to adhere the line of beads to a pencil line, working from the outside or starting from the interior of your image.
Cover the Gourds in Seed Beads
Or why not just cover the entire outside with seed beads or pony beads? Or reverse that plan and cover the interior with these same beads
Add beads to a pine needle Rim.
There are endless ways to add a bead to the coiling project you use on your gourd. Attaching them is easy, and the patterns you can create depend on your creativity.
See beads as an added Embellishments
Perhaps your gourd is functional and you just might want to add beads to enhance it’s appeal to the viewer.
Videos to help you learn attachment techniques for beads
There are many if you search YouTube or Google. Here are just a few.
Making A Gourd Shekere by Abbie Ehorn
Easy instructions using large beads,
How to Add Beads to a Gourd Lamp
Leah from Blue Whale Arts guides you through the process, adding 8mm, 6mm, and 4mm beads to a gourd lamp, as well as how to create simple and perfectly shaped fabric beads.
Make your own Beads
Another idea is to make your own beads from papers and fabrics. I remember teaching this to my junior high art students and they had a ball discovering different paper from gift wrap to news papers to comic books.
Now it is your turn to pull out your beads and a gourd and try one of the ideas you saw here!
Why not gathering your own collection of favorite gourds. Try my method. Keep a folder on your desktop and label it” Favorite Gourds.” When you see a gourd on the Internet with a fantastic bead idea, copy it to the folder. Then you will have your inspiration gourds handy like I do.
If you have any tips, please share your thoughts in the comment box or share them with all the gourd artists on our Facebook Group Page.
By the way, Pinterest users can help me spread the word about my posts and jewelry by re-pinning their favorites from my Pinterest page.
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