Beautiful Sunflowers on a Gourd

This project was made with the help of my Proxxon Jig Saw, Proxxon Rotary Tool and the Proxxon Pen Sander, I also used some Plaid Paints for the inside and back of the gourd.

Supplies needed for this Project:

Proxxon Jig Saw
Proxxon Rotary Tool w/flex shaft
Proxxon Pen Sander
Plaid Paint, Ivory and Dark Blue
Alcohol Inks- Dark Blue, Meadow Green, Lettuce
Elmer's Glue or PVA glue
Paint Brushes
Palette
Alcohol for clean up
Wood Burner and pen

I started out with this rather ugly looking gourd that had a lot of mold spots that were left after cleaning the outside of the gourd. I drew my sunflower tops all around the top of the gourd and down the front. I arranged them in such a way as to eliminate a lot of the mold spots when cut out.

I started out by cutting around the top of the gourd and down and around the front. I then cut even closer to the flowers. Once I finished with this part of the cutting, I cleaned out the inside of the gourd of all the mess that was inside lol. I also drew a couple of sunflowers on the back of the gourd.

Once all the drawing  was complete, I wood burned all of the sunflowers, stems and leaves. I then used my paint brushes to apply alcohol inks to the sunflowers and the background. The unusual look on the background was created by doing the background in the dark blue alcohol ink and then dropping green alcohol ink on it. I like that the background was not just a blue but had a textured "look" to it.

After the alcohol ink was applied, I used my Proxxon Rotary Tool w/ Flex Shaft to stipple around all of the sunflowers, stems and leaves on the back of the gourd. I also used a different type of bur to go around each one of the sunflowers around the top and down the front of the gourd, removing even more gourd. I then used my Proxxon Pen Sander to sand the gourd smooth around all of the sunflowers that went around the opening. Things were really starting to look good at this point but I needed to paint the portion of the gourd that was stippled, which I did. No gourd is completely finished until you finish the insides, so I mixed the dark blue paint with glue and painted the interior of the gourd and around the edge of the sunflowers surrounding the opening.

After all was complete, I spray sealed the gourd. In this instance I used three coats of sealer to finish it off. I was very proud of the way it turned out. How do you like it? Please leave me a comment below to let me know. I do read all of the comments that people leave. And while you're at it, go on over to www.proxxon.com and take a look at all the tools that they have for the artist, crafter or home hobbyist. These tools were created for people like you to use! You can also check out the Plaid products by going on over to www.plaidonline.com. They have so many new products and a lot of wonderful videos too.

Barbara