Show-Me Gourd Society State Gourd Festival

As some of you may know, the weekend of April 28th I attended the State Gourd Festival in Sedalia, MO. What a wonderful time I had! I took a new class with a new technique in waxing that was developed by Miriam Joy of Miriam Joy Gourd Creations. Terrific class and I love this new technique.  I will show you some gourds made with this new technique in the near future. I taught this new technique to some of my students this past Saturday and they loved it too. So many pieces of Gourd Art to see, and ooooh and aaaaaah over. There were some very famous artists who had pieces entered into the competiions. The gourd society had several different classes and catagories in which to enter your art work. I took three pieces of my gourd art and entered them into the competition. I won blue ribbons on all three of them. The first piece was entered in the catagory "Whole Gourd any technique" the second catagory that I entered was "Cut Gourd any technique" and the third was "Useful bird house any technique".

Each leaf was woodburned unto this gourd. I used dyes for the leaf color. Between each leaf was carved out and painted black. I wanted it to resemble a pile of leaves falling to the ground.

This piece actually has a tree carved out on each side of the gourd. The tree itself was woodburned before it was cut out. I could only cut out a couple of pieces to use to clean out the interior of the gourd. Very difficult cleaning and then I used acrylic paint (Metallic sapphire blue) to color the inside. The trees were painted with crayon watercolors. I used dye for the exterior of the gourd and then sealed it.

This bird house was cleaned somewhat on the inside but not completely. The bird would use what's left in making their nest. Holes were drilled in the bottom for any drainage. The outside design was woodburned into the gourd and then the shapes were painted with crayon watercolors. I put several coats of sealer on the outside.

I hope you enjoy my blue ribbon gourds, I know I was very proud to win them!! If you are anywhere close to Springfield, MO you might want to attend the next State Gourd Festival. We voted on the last day of this festival to move the festival to Springfield, MO next year. The festival will be held at the Springfield fairgrounds. If you vacation in Branson, MO you might want to schedule your vacation for April 28, and 29th 2012. I hope to see many more people there this next year. I'm the chairman in charge of lining up the classes for it. I may even teach a class myself. Please give me some feedback cause I love to hear from everyone. You're all important to me and I have especially noticed all the new followers!!

Hugs to you XX
Barbara

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