First Show, New Gourds!

My first show of the season is fast approaching, I will be returning for the second year to the Lititz Outdoor Fine Art Show at Lititz Springs Park on July 27 9-5.
As per usual, I am juggling a few projects and I will share a preview of some of my recently completed gourds that I will have at the Lititz show here.

Raven's Treasure

When I was a little girl, I loved to watch the Wonderful World of Disney.  One of the episodes was called "Inky the Crow", about a young girl who finds an injured crow and nurses him back to health.  I was fascinated about one particular character trait of the crow, and that was that he liked to collect little trinkets and hide them in a little treasure trove on a tall bookshelf.  
Later on another television show called Detectorists (BBC) had a side story about magpies that were collecting gold coins from a farmer's field and hoarding them in their nest.  That awakened my previous interest in this mannerism and I began to think of how I can depict this very cool trait!
Ravens are corvids as well and share this high intelligence and I suspect love of "shiny things".  My composition includes a branch they are perched on to show the natural world, and the carved Gothic style window behind to show the world of man.  As you can see, one of the ravens holds a gold coin in it's mouth, the "treasure" it collected.

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Piping Plovers

Shore birds are adorable, and I think piping plovers are among the cutest!  They are considered an endangered species as breeding habitats have been shrinking worldwide.  I wanted to show one with a chick, hopeful that efforts to help them will be successful.

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Celtic Cat Ornament

As per usual, I will have a collection of gourd ornaments available, though I am making a more limited amount this year and only selling them at shows.  After shows the remainder will be available on my website.  This Celtic Cat is one of a little series of cats with Celtic knotwork borders, on a larger size egg gourd.

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Nebula Faux Raku Gourd Bowl

Raku pottery is gorgeous, and I have experimented in how to mimic that look on a gourd.  I am using these as an aesthetic base for my pine needle coiled bowls. This one is called "Nebula", as it reminds me of deep space images of nebulae. Recently, I posted a couple of videos of how to achieve the raku look, and how to coil with pine needles.  If you have not yet seen them, click the links below!

Faux Raku Gourd

Pine Needle Coiled Gourd Rim

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Lastly, here is a work in progress of a Great Blue Heron on a small gourd.  I am working on getting a few "smalls" done for the show.  Want to see it completed?  Then take a look at a couple of short videos I made of the progress, follow the links below.

Heron Gourd Part 1

Heron Gourd Part 2

That covers the sampling of the gourds I will have on display in a couple of weeks.  I sure hope you are able to stop out, even if it is just to say "hello"!  I do enjoy meeting with you and having a chat! Cheers!