Gourd Santa Step by Step

The gourd Santa is all done. I wanted to write a more detailed step-by-step tutorial, but I think I'll have to wait until I get more time on the library computers, or until I get something better than dial-up. I did get it listed on Etsy in time for Christmas so that's a start.

Here is a brief list of steps:

1. Find a Santa shaped gourd and clean it well.

2. Coat with gesso, let dry and sand with fine sandpaper a bit to smooth surface again.

3. Draw light guidelines on gourd with a pencil

4. Block in colored areas with first coat of paint using a medium brush.

5. Let dry thoroughly

6. Go in with finer brush and do all the detail work, making sure every part gets at least 2 coats of paint.

7. Sign your gourd

8. Coat with clear acrylic spray

9. Enjoy

Gourd Santa Step-by-step

In spite of my frustration and confusion about Christmas, sometimes I get a hankering to make something Christmassy. So I was staring at this gourd in my yard, and it was staring back, and I started to think,"I bet that gourd would make a good Santa." So I washed it all up, and noticed it had a broken/soft spot about a nickle in size.  Rats. I can still use it for a birdhouse or something, but since the Santa is all in one piece it wouldn't work for that.  So I went out to the studio and got another one of a similar shape and got it all cleaned up.

So now I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the Santa. It suddenly got blustery outside and I got hungry so I put it all away until tomorrow. But I plan to make a step-by-step how-to to go with it.

Seascapes & Other Miniature Paintings

I could have sworn I'd posted the miniature paintings I did yesterday. Maybe I put them on a different blog. Oh well, I'll post them now.

Gourd Folk Art Painting

Today was Sat. and I was determined to paint or else. I didn't have any canvases left so I painted on gourds. That is why I bought the gourds after all. I was going to paint 3 small bottle gourds but one of them had cracks so I painted the other two and a bigger roundish gourd. The minute I started to paint it was just one interruption after another. The phone kept ringing, the garden needed water, my bf needed help fixing a knob on the washer, the cat needed attention. And then my bf needed attention.

I did manage to get all 3 gourds painted. I'll let them dry overnight and hopefully put a clear protective spray over them tomorrow.

The desert scene was inspired by my trip to Quartzsite AZ.

Gourd Skully

Today I got to paint a skull on a gourd, and I got to paint a memorial ribbon. The gourd isn't quite finished. I want to glue an eyepatch over one eye of the skully. It's a cool bit of folk art. The gourd is rouched up where the eye should be. That is the part of the gourd that was laying on the ground. It gives the skully a nice folksy weathered look. I always thought it was both cool and creepy that the color of a gourd skin looks like human skin.