An Embellishment on Gourds should be Dramatic!
Sometimes keeping the gourd surface simple and letting another natural product be the focus is the best way to let the gourd speak to the viewer. These two sisters have a style that can help you think about a different approach to using a botanical embellishment on gourds you create.
Raised in Colorado, both girls were fascinated by the magical transformation of planting a small seed and nurturing the sprout in its effort to becoming a beautiful gourd plant they could turn into art. Over the years, they have grown the familiar birdhouse variety as well as the bottleneck, kettle, egg, bushel, snake, and dipper gourds.
Cynthia (Yauk ) Benson
“I love to observe the gardening process from seed germination to plant maturity. I also have great respect for how it all can change. After harvesting the gourds, I prefer to ‘green scrape’ them. Gourds have a thin, green epidermis that if left to dry and mold naturally result in an interesting surface. It is a bit more work to not green scrape and clean them later, but the end result is often worth the wait and extra effort. More than willingly my husband has given up much of his garage space and the use of his power tools to help us prepare the gourds for the creative phase.”
Adrienne
Because Adrienne has a love for fiber arts and eventually earn her bachelor’s degree in Art in that area, she has influenced their choices. When the gourds speak to them, they also hear the natural world around them suggesting a perfect embellishment for gourds.
Working together they have mastered many of the embellishment techniques available. What sets their gourds apart is the simple dramatic way those embellishments are arranged to enhance the shape and color of the gourd.
Grasses, natural fibers, seed pods, and dried wood pieces are great natural elements to use because of their intriguing texture. Some are expensive when you start buying them and weaving a natural material around the rim means a lot of preparation and time making it all work perfectly.
You want the embellishment to be the star here, so the girls have purposely given the gourd surface a simple coloring, letting the natural blotches of the gourd skin reveal themselves. This simple approach is reflected in their business name ‘Nature Inspired Art’ and as you take a closer look at their work it fits perfectly. There choices of embellishments for gourds is something that can work for you also.
Here are more examples of their work. Focus on how the embellishment chosen give it a dramatic impression.
When you are using an embellishment on gourds, strive to allow it to dramatically reveal the beauty of the shape, then you are creating a master piece of gourd art.
Their gourds have been in local juried shows, the Hand Weavers Guild of Boulder, the Art Center of Estes Park, the Northern Colorado Weavers Guild, the Madison and Main Gallery, and the Celebration of the Arts Show at the Windsor-Severance Library.
What natural embellishment and material have you added to a gourd?
Please, share your thoughts here in the comment box or share them with all the gourd artists on our Facebook Group Page.
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