Massimo Leoardi:
Learn how this Italian artist uses calculating inlay of soapstone and cut-out designs on gourds.
Massimo is an Italian gourd artist living in Cheshire, UK. His work is of a master craftsman. Spending hours on drawing and laying out his designs, he calculates every line to enhance the form of the gourd. His eye for where to make the design cuts on the gourd is perfect and his use of soapstone inlay is unique.
Yet, on the other hand, he also uses many things we are using including his sources of gourds.
He was inspired to try gourd art after seeing a highly decorated African gourd at the home of his parents’ friends in Italy. Then he got the chance to work with gourds seven years ago when he bought gourds from Italy and started decorating. He began with ink and experimenting with wood burning.
Massimo learned that America is a better source of gourds and now orders them from Amish Gourds in York Pennsylvania,
Like all accomplished artists he soon wanted to achieve a completely original way of decorating them, so over time, he developed different techniques.
“As the gourd is a natural product with an irregular shape and surface, you have to be very careful and compensate for the irregularity by making the design appear regular on the surface.”
Cut-outs
His techniques come from his past
The techniques I use are linked to my artistic background – my previous job was as an engraver for watermarked banknote paper. I applied my technique for chiaroscuro drawing to the wood burner. The carving and cutting techniques I used before on the watermark mold process transferred fairly easily to carving on the gourd.
“The cut-out areas on the gourds are very important to the design. They have to create shadows and silhouettes with the light, which makes the environment surrounding the gourd more interesting.”
In Night Tiger the main feature is a wood-burnt tiger inspired by ancient Indian art. . He first draws the image on paper and then copies it with a pencil onto the gourd. Then he goes over it with a ballpoint pen, before burning the image on with the wood burner.
Night Tiger also has a cut-out design, which in this case is a repetition of the same pattern. “I drew the pattern first on plain paper, then transfer it to tracing paper and traced that onto the gourd, and then rub it, transferring the image to the gourd. “ Then he carves out the pattern using a miniature saw blade.
Inlay
Next, he does the cut-out design for the inlay and fills it with crushed soapstone. Then he sands the surface until it is smooth.
Soapstone
The handle of the lid is also made of carved soapstone to resemble a tiger’s claw. Soapstone is a soft stone that is fairly easy to work with using files. The inside of the dried gourd of Night Tiger was painted in gold acrylic. To finish, I applied a black and white leather trim to the gourd.
The Asian Inspired Pieces
Fascinated by Asian art cultures, he has done a lot of research into ancient techniques such as Netzuke – this is an ancient Japanese carving technique that was used by Samurai on ivory ornaments to go on their belts
His work often displays unusual materials like Verdigris, which is the patina that forms on copper over time (which you often see on church domes). This is an exceedingly difficult material to use because it is very light in weight, but it gives a very vibrant green color to the work.
“To create the pescolini (little fish) I chose 2 banana-shaped gourds whose form lent itself to the fish image.”
He applies color sparingly to the gourd because he doesn’t want to invade the natural appearance of the gourd itself. the color enhances the gourd, rather than dominating it – “I don’t want the gourd to just appear like a mechanically-produced vase.”
This video is as wonderful as his art .Relax and enjoy his work...
The artist live in the U.K. and no longer has a web site.
What did you like about his work? Can you relate to the problems this gourd artists has solved?
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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