"The Gourd"

Now you may wonder why I am so excited about a gourd! There are a couple of reasons, one being that I have never worked with a gourd before and the second that I have signed up for the Seven Deadly Sins workshop by Marilyn Radzat.

Years ago a friend gave me a gourd that was sitting idle on his garage roof drying out, I think I mentioned that in the UK I had never managed to get one to dry properly because of all the rain, so he gave me this one. I am not saying here it can't be done in the UK, just that I had never managed it, and Cornwall is renowned for being on the damp side. As I mentioned this was a long time ago and it sat out the back of the house drying and doing it's thing then going all those weird and wonderful colours that they do when the mould gets to them. 

When I saw the Seven Deadly Sins workshop I just knew that "the gourd" was meant just for this purpose.

Now what do you do with them once you have them dried out and mouldy?, apparently clean them. Having no idea how to do this I did a google search and came up with this great youtube video that shows you exactly what to do. It really is easy and there's some strange satisfaction watching all that gunk come off to reveal a thing of beauty. 

 

So here it is "The gourd"

 The workshop starts in September and I can't wait to start transforming this into, hopefully a work of art. I will be trying to grow some of these beauties in the back yard when spring finally arrives.