A fully dried gourd will

have a moldy skin on it

which must be removed.
Clean your gourd with warm
water and a pot scrubber.
Wrap in a wet towel for an
hour or so if the mold is dif-
ficult to remove.
Decide how your gourd will
stand. Sand bottom for sta-
bility if necessary. A piece
of sanding paper taped to the
table will work if you dont
have one of these nifty belt
sanders.
Use a pencil to scribe a line around
your gourd. This will be where you
cut. You dont need a vice, you can
stack books to the proper height and
hold the pencil on top.
Make a starter hole using a
drill or awl.
I use a mini jig saw to cut off the
top but you can use an Exacto
knife...very carefully
The inside of the gourd
is full of seeds, mem-
brane and mold. A dust
mask should always be
worn.
The inside can be
cleaned out first by
hand.
I do the final cleaning on the interior with a small drill press and a
copper scrubby.
If you dont have a drill press you can achieve the final
cleaning by hand scrubbing.
Gourdin 101
If the design calls for a painted interior,
I like to do that at this point.
If you get a little paint on the rim
its no big deal.we are not fin-
ished with the rim yet.
Using a sanding drum on a Dremel, I finish
the rim. You can do this by hand with sand-
paper.
This design gets a rim treat-
ment. I am using a pair of di-
viders to mark holes for the
rim, about 1/2 apart. You can
also use a compass or tape
measure.
This pattern is a leaf cut out of card stock.
You can also use tracing or carbon paper to
apply your pattern.
The pattern is traced with a pencil. A soft pen-
cil is best as it is easier to remove afterwards.
The pattern has been transferred. The pattern is then burned into the gourd using a
variable heat wood burning tool. This gives the
pattern a nice outline and helps the ink dyes that
follow to stay within the lines.
After the pattern has been trans-
ferred, I remove the pencil marks
with a baby wipe, they work
great!
After the pencil marks are removed, I
switch to a shading wood burner pen and
add shadows to the leaf to add depth and
interest. It is easier to do this after the
pencil pattern is removed as it is easier to
see the effects.
Now we add color. I mostly use ink
dyes which are similar to leather dyes.
They are translucent and allow the
natural markings of the gourd to come
through.
Ink dyes will air dry, but a heat gun
really sets the color in a hurry!
Two colors are used on the leaf using a
small foam applicator.
The colors are blended together. Ink
dyes do not dry quickly so you have
time to blend.
When dried with the heat gun, the
entire gourd is sealed with tung oil.
There are many products that can be
used, but I find tung oil gives the best
results. A cosmetic sponge works
well here.
And you thought we were done.Using a
ball shaped cutting bit, I am removing and
adding texture to the area surrounding the
leaf. Other bits are use to get a clean line
around the oval and leaf pattern. The rea-
son for doing this step now is that the outer
shell acted like a mask when I applied the
dyes and oil. I did not have to worry about
going outside the line!
This gourd gets a rim treatment. Here
we are drilling out the holes we marked
earlier.
This rim is a piece of jute attached
with waxed linen thread. On a tapes-
try needle, feed the thread from in-
side the gourd to the outside and tie a
knot. Rotate the knot so it is inside
the gourd.
Insert the needle through the same hole
from the inside to the outside.
Move to the next hole, run the thread
from the inside out, two times creat-
ing the stitch show above.
Continue all around. When near the start-
ing point, trim the jute to just butt up with
the starting end and apply white glue to
both ends to keep them from unraveling.
Let dry.
When dry, finish the stitching
and secure the thread by run-
ning it through the starting
hole and through several of
the stitches inside the gourd.
Apply a drop of white glue to
secure the end. Trim threads.
Stand back and admire your gourd bowl!
Joan Appelt
Beech Creek Gourds

6615 Beech Creek Road
Clifton, TN 38425

931-676-3438
www.beechcreekgourds.com
joan@beechcreekgourds.com