Miscellany Doings

It has been a busy few months.  The blog and all things media have been put on the back burner as I prepare for the PA Gourd Fest, and my upcoming shows.  Even then, it is difficult to put the time in as there always seems to be something to pull me away from the studio.  There are never enough hours in the day or days in the week for me to do all that I want to accomplish.  Anyone else struggle with this?  

As I said, the PA Gourd Fest is fast approaching, actually about 2 weeks away yet!  There are still more gourds to cut and clean for my classes.  But I did get 2 competition gourds completed!  Want to see a picture?  

Well sorry - I cannot share them yet but as soon as the fest is over you will get to see.

I will, however,  share a couple of other gourds.  As you may know, I like to use gold leaf along with my pyrography.  I have been intrigued by artists covering canvases with gold leaf and painting over them.  I love the luminosity that it creates as an underlayment.  So, I decided to give it a try on gourds.  

Below I burned a barn swallow and added color with pencils.  Then I gold leafed the background and used acrylic paints for the sky and landscape.

This sea turtle gourd received a similar treatment.  This time, after burning the turtle I used silver leaf and then painted over top.

​This week I also bought a new burner and some replacement pens!  My old Burn Master unit still works, but I have been noticing a slight buzzing now and then, and my cords getting hot which did not happen before.  I know I could do this and that  to fix it, but I didn't want to fuss with all that now so I just bit the bullet.  Since some of my pens were getting a bit too worn down, I figured go the whole nine for that as well! I do plan on making a video review but just haven't had time yet. 

​Also, we need to talk about new pen syndrome.  If you don't know what that is, we will go over that too. 

So look for that video and blog post after the fest!

Cheers for now!
🧡 Jenn

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