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An inspiration gourd project for beginning gourd carvers

Here is a gourd project for beginning gourd carvers using a Dremel. Watch a variety of gourd techniques that will broaden your skills and I will offer some insight on the Dremel tool and how the different burrs work with gourds.

bernadette Fox

Bernadette Fox uses several techniques including woodburning, weaving, embossing, and gold leaf. She also clearly goes through the steps of carving a flower and leaf design, sharing the Dremel burrs she uses. If you are just starting to think about a Dremel, then this post and video should help you get started.

The learning curve for beginning gourd carvers is high

Carving is one of the most challenging gourd art skills and will involve buying expensive tools and accessories. But if you stay determined, you can create some beautiful gourds!  Before we begin talking about the tool let me suggest that you purchase large, cracked gourds from a gourd farmer. These you break up with a hammer or cut on a band saw into manageable pieces to practice your carving on. This is also the way you create gourd shards. I have a drawer full of both large and small pieces cleaned and ready to work with.

broken gourd
dremel

Beginning gourd carvers should consider a Dremel for their toolbox

A Dremel is a great investment. Don’t buy a large kit. Buy just the Dremel and a few attachments. Take a look at the 200 Series 1.15 Amp Dual Speed Corded Rotary Tool Kit with 15 Accessories and 1 Attachment.

beginning gourd carver dremel accessories

At $49, it will give you two speeds and 15accessories to get started. Here are the pieces that come with this small kit.

beginning gourd carver collet

As a beginning gourd carver, you should avoid falling into the trap of buying every burr you see

All the burrs have a shank in different sizes. The shank will fit into the Collet. When you buy the burr make sure you have a collet the same size. 

These are usually found in the following shank sizes:

  • 1.6mm or 1/16″
  • 2.35mm or 3/32″
  • 3mm or 1/8″
  • 6mm or 1/4″

I recommend you buy the burrs that Bernette suggests in the same shank size. They are all used in gourd art. In the future, if someone suggests something different, then shop. The burrs used in the video will all help you if you practice with them and explore what each can do.

beginning gourd carver burr types

What are Burrs?

Carbide Rotary Burrs are referred to as rotary files or die grinder bits used for cutting, shaping, and grinding. They come in two cuts; Single cuts are used mainly for metal. The Double cut or sometimes called a Diamond cut is for use on plastics and wood. With more cutting edge, they will remove material faster. You want the double-cut burrs.

beginning gourd carver burrs for wood

Each type of burr creates a different effect. Here are the most common ones for wood.

Here’s my reference description for the most commonly used burrs in beginning gourd carving

You can use a ball or spherical-shaped carbide burr to create concave cuts into your gourd or to shape and hollow out an area. I have a medium and a small. Once an area is scraped and sanded, I press this burr into the surface and create little circle dimples as a texture.

beginnng gourd carver pointed burr

Use for rounding off edges and making concave cuts. Use the pointed end for cutting in hard-to-reach areas and acute-angled contours.

beginning gourd carvers inverted burr

Try the inverted cone to help you make v cuts and for creating channels along an edge of a design. inverted cone-shaped tungsten carbide burrs for making v-cuts and rear side chamfering.

beginning gourd carver'sround nose or cone burr

This burr is good for rounded edges and surface finishing in difficult-to-reach areas or tight and narrow angles and contours. The round nose or ball nose cone is often referred to as a tapered shape.

beginning gourd carver's

Bernadette uses a large tooth caring burr to begin to cut the outlines of her flowers and leaves. This is a deep cut that sets the depth of petals and leaves. Remember they need to be deep to allow more surface to be removed to create depth. This tool will quickly do the job.

beginning gourd carver'slarge course flame burr

You can use se the flame burr to smooth out all the different surfaces on the leaves and flowers that you just crudely cut with a large tooth burr. Go slowly, you can’t correct this part if you go too deep.

beginning gourd carver's 90 degree angle burr

Choose from 60-degree or 90-degree angle countersink burs, sometimes referred to as carbide cone burrs. These are ideal for beveling, counter-boring, chamfering, and for getting into acute angled areas of your work. This one could have been used to cut a line around the rim.

As a beginning gourd carver review all  safety tips on your tools and burrs

As with all drill bits and burrs, let the burr do the work and apply only a little pressure otherwise the cutting edges of the flutes will chip away or become smooth too quickly, reducing the life of your burr.

  • Always ensure your burr shank is well inserted into your collet and clamped down tightly
  • Keep pressure light and keep the bur moving, focusing on the highest material first
  • Ensure your work is secured tightly to your workbench
  • Don’t snag or jam your burr into your work
  • Wear eye protection to a minimum, but better still use a full shield for your face

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Steps in the creative Process

Let’s review the steps taken in the video creating the Franklina Gourd

Bernadette Fox has cleaned and cut the top off her gourd and has sanded it and painted the inside black. She also has drawn her design lines on the gourd.

She  used a jigsaw to cut the slats out for the leather weaving. These get sanded and smoothed

beginning gourd carver then wood burns lineswoodburning-lines

Next, she wood burned all her lines.

Now it is time for the carving.

With her Dremel tool and the large tooth burr, she begins to carve the skin from the leaves and the flower shapes.

carving out the leaves
beginning gourd carver's
cutting the blossoms

When the insides of the blossoms were carved out, she changes to a ball burr to make the lines of the flower edge and begins to define where one petal sits on top of the other.

You have to think in 2-dimensions here to get the depth of the flower communicated to the viewer. This is where you can learn the best lessons by practicing on a large shard.

beginning gourd carvers inverted burr

Next, she changes her burr to the inverted cone to carve out the vein in the leaves.

using inverted burr

When the main forms are carved, they will have to be smoothed out. To do that kind of work, she inserts her double flame burr to deepen the petal edges a little more.

Carbide Bur- Flame Shape

To add more definition to the shapes she uses a pointed bur to carve deeper around the flowers and make the vein lines dark.

pointed bur

Beginning gourd carvers will soon find out why so many burrs are available

Notice that this is a process of moving from large simple forms to the fine details that make the object look real. There is a different burr for each action. Learning which burr will do the job is where hours of practice will make this seem easy. Everyone has their favorite burs for each part. But start with a few with the same shaft size. Most of these burrs run about $ to $10.

line-with-wheel-bur

The Last Major Cut

To carve a band around the top of the design she used a wheel burr.

Now that the carving is finished,  you will need to seal it with a varnish or polyacrylic finish. This will keep it clean if you plan on keeping it natural. It also seals the porous surface so it doesn’t soak in the acrylic paint she will be using.

The Painting Process with Acrylic paint and gourd dyes

Bernadette gave each form a base color and then blended other colors into the base to create shadows.

base coat of acrylics

She also uses a toothpick to erase paint to reveal the leaf veins.

tooth pick creates vein

 

Then gourd dye was chosen for the secondary designs. This choice keeps the major design with the bright colors the focus of the gourd.

adding dye

Weaving the Slats with Leather

Now that the painting is finished, you can start the embellishments.

She weaves black leather strips through the cut slats and seals the edges together with e6000 glue.

l1leather-strips

Embossing the rim

To cover the rim, she uses embossing powder. The glue from a stamp pad was patted onto the rim.

stamp glue rim

The rim is then lowered into the powder.

use embossing powder

The powder is melted with a heat gun. She does this process  4 times to get a thick covering of enamel.

use embossing powder

Gold Leaf Process

The band around the top of the design was covered with  heat set glue using a small brush.Then it was heat set to make it sticky.

applies heat glue

She then covers the sticky surface with gould leaf.

applies gold leaf

Then she  brushes off the excess with a stiff brush.

brush off gold leaf

Now you can watch as Bernadette creates this gourd for her father. 

workable fixatif

Final Finish Options

The final finish for this gourd was a brushed-on varnish. I would have started with another finish. Since there are so many products on this gourd I would make sure it has 2 coats of a Workable Fixatif to make sure none of them bleed with the final spray of a Polycrylic because acrylic paint was used here.

polycrylic

Take the time to look at and analyze the work of others

Carving a gourd is truly a challenge many gourd artists have mastered. When you begin be sure to take time to collect images of work in progress to help guide you in your advancement. Here are a few images from my collectio

2Donnie-Novak5
Donnie-Novak
Bonnie Gibson

Take a class, Try some tutorials

There are so many good carver giving classes to Gourd clubs and at gourd festivals. Search them out. The best carver I know, Bonnie Gibbons has been teaching for years and has recently created wonder tutorials moving you through different gourd projects.

tutorial one

I know many of you have lots of experience working with a Dremel and I encourage you to  leave a comment anout your tool or bit.

Please, share your thoughts here in the comment box or share them with all the gourd artists on our Facebook Group Page. 

Return to the Blog page for other articles.

By the way, Pinterest users can help me spread the word about my posts and jewelry by re-pinning your favorites from my Pinterest page.

Bettie Lake

I am a former art educator and gourd art master helping new artists understand how to succeed with gourd art. I use my blog posts and our Facebook Group Page to communicate with my followers. Hopefully you learn some new things from this post and will return to read others.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Julia

    Great article! I’ve watched many of Bernadette’s videos over the years. I have yet to try any of those double flame burrs; everyone I know that uses them loves them. Better add one to my shopping list.

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