Tangling on gourds has become central to my style. Many of my gourd friends first met me during a festival class. I also have books on my techniques and offer you the opportunity to purchase them here. Let me tell you all how this journey got started for me.
Before coming to gourd art, I have always enjoyed creating patterns and adding them to my abstract painting. About 10 years ago I found “zentangling” on the Internet and began to use them in my 8”x 11” drawings. First in black and white and then I added color. I framed them and sold them at art fairs.
The first skill to learn is Woodburning
When I retired and wanted to learn a new art form, I found gourds and some great new friends. I knew I had to start with woodburning and match my skills with a pencil to my skill with a burning tip. It took patience and I was disappointed with how hard it was to control the curves.
As I talked to others in my group, I saw many struggling with drawing and wood-burning images. I didn’t start that way. I naturally just turned to some of my zentangling patterns. But even those were too complicated for beginning wood burners.
Creating tangles just for Woodburning
I thought about this problem for a while and decided I would create patterns built on a grid that could be easily drawn on the curved gourd surface and easy enough to be wood burned. These patterns are not referred to as zentangles because they don’t fit the requirement of the copyright label “zentangle”. So, I use the more general term “tangling” to avoid legal issues.
When I began to bring these tangling gourds to my gourd patch for “Show and Tell” I soon found myself teaching classes to my group and then other patches in my state.
In the end, I published a book with these patterns and still have them available.
Developing my “toasting method”
My wood burning has improved and my curves have become easier. My new wood-burning style is more like the traditional style used with wood. Drawing is more than just creating the outline. I wanted shadows! I pointed my attention to the ways shading tips are used to create fur, feathers, and textures on wood using different tips. That greatly improved the look of my tangles when I added depth with the writing and ball tips.
My mind quickly posed the question, why not do the outline with the writing tip? When I tried that, I was surprised and thrilled at how easy this all became. I now could use a pen like I use a pencil! I call my technique “toasting” because I do not cut into the surface of the gourd. You burn at a lower temperature and move only over the surface of the gourd, toasting the skin with heat until it turns brown like on a piece of toast. You change the color by repeating the move several times layering the burned strokes.
I won my first blue ribbon from Wuertz Gourd Festival with a gourd using this technique. Now the teacher instinct kicked in and I talk my husband into going to festivals across the country offering a class teaching my tangles and my wood-burning technique. Two books came from this experience. I created 30 more patterns and include a shard image with the pattern shaded so the user could see the finished results.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.