Wonderful Things You Can Make Out of Gourds

If you are lucky enough to live near a gourd farm, you are in for an amazing arts and crafts opportunity. And even if you don't, many gourd farms will send you gourds through the mail. Tell them what you plan to make and they can tell you which shape would be best for your project. Or you can try your hand at growing your own, but it may be a year or more before one is ready to use.

Hardshelled gourds can be turned into many lovely and wonderful objects. You can paint them, carve them, burn designs into them (pyrography), dye them, add beadwork and decorate them in infinite ways.

You can turn them into bowls, vases, masks, dolls, puppets, birdhouses, bird feeders, clocks, lampshades, sculptures and purses. Many instruments can be made from gourds including drums, rattles, stringed instruments and flutes.

It's sometimes labor intensive but it's so much fun and delivers a lot more satisfaction than quick projects. You can make them cute and corny or primitive and mysterious. You can make them simple or complicated. You can make them quick and dirty or spend hours inlaying gemstones and weaving and making a museum quality piece. You can make great designs with no power tools whatsoever, but if you are serious about making a lot of things, it's really helpful to have some power tools like dremels, a drill and hole cutters.

There may even be a local gourd group near you.They are called 'patches'. Sometimes a bunch of patches get together and sponsor gourd art shows. If you go to a gourd art show you will see museum quality gourds on display, booths with tools that work well with gourds, a kid's art section where for a few dollars your children can make a gourd creation to take home, a contest, and workshops. The bigger shows have live music and lots of food vendors as well.

No matter what art skills you have, or even if you have none yet, gourds are user friendly for all ages.

Keep them in mind next time you need a great family project.