A New Gourd Project (Surprise!)

I have needed to make a small bowl for a few weeks now, actually I need to make several of different designs because I was in a show last week and will be in another this next weekend. Sometimes you just need smaller, popular pieces that are a bit less expensive than what you have.

Items needed for this project are:

Micromot Jigsaw STS 12/E
Micromot Precision Drill FBS 12/EF w/flexshaft
Variable Speed Woodburner
Gesso/Black
Alcohol Inks (Fall colors)
Kamar Varnish
Leather Needle
Fiber Rush
Artificial Sinew
Blow dryer
Foam brush
Q-tips
paint brushes (small)
alcohol

To begin with my gourd looked like this:

Just a small mottled gourd

 Not the prettiest thing is it? And this is after I washed all of the mold off the outside! I ended up with three different circles drawn around the gourd for a pattern because I couldn't decide at what level I wanted to cut the gourd off. As you can see in this next picture I decided on the bottom ring and cut it out with my Micromot Jigsaw STS 12/E. I gotta tell ya this is one handy little tool!

Yes the rings were level but the gourd was crooked/leaning lol.

Once the gourd was cut, I then cleaned out the inside until it was smooth and used my black gesso to paint the inside. I used a foam brush to do that. After letting the gesso dry, (I left it overnight) I placed my pattern of leaves around the outside of the gourd, woodburned them on and then used my inks to put the color onto the gourd. I blended the colors on the leaves but used a brown for around the leaves. I heat set the inks with my blow dryer and then used the Kamar Varnish to seal it. I also cleaned my paint brush out with alcohol. Basically you have to have your gourd finished before you drill your holes and coil your rush.

After finishing your gourd off with the sealer you then need to drill holes around 1/2-1 inch apart and 1/4 inch down from the rim all around the gourd.

I used my Micromot Precision Drill FBS 12/EF with a flexshaft attached. All of the Micromot tools that are used in my posts have to be hooked up to either a Micromot AC Adapter NG 2/S or a Micromot AC Adapter NG 5/E. I use the larger one in the shop and take the smaller one with me, unless I've got several things plugged into the big one lol.

Once I got all of the holes drilled into the top of the gourd I then coiled the fiber rush around the top of the gourd with the artificial sinew and TaDa!

Cute isn't it and can be used for several things or nothing at all. I hope you liked this project and that you definitely check out www.proxxon.com for all of the tiny tools you might not know you needed.

Barbara