New Gourds

In my last post I mentioned my recent trip to Maine.  While there my family and I went on a little boat sightseeing ride out to Petit Manan Island to see some wildlife.  This is a spot for puffins, terns, auks and eiders and as we cruised back we stopped at Eastern Egg Rock Island to see some harbor seals.  Being inspired by these adorable seals, this was the first gourd I worked on when we got back home.

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I wanted to add a little bit of carving to this and use my newly sharpened cup burr set.  The recessed carving is drilled through, while the "bubbles" on the painted area is carved with the cup burrs.  I then took a tiny bit of metallic ink to paint the raised areas to make the shapes more apparent.  See detail below.

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This next gourd is a lidded bowl that I finished with flocking on the inside.  Note to self and others, do the flocking last.  I did it before I carved and dust got all stuck in it and was a pain to clean out!  The bunnies are pyroengraved and I used a few different burrs to carve out the leaves.  I am still learning as I go along with carving burrs and which ones to use when.  

Below is the finished piece.  I went through a few different kinds of paint until I got the look I wanted. That is another thing that I am still working on by trial and error.  I removed the stem, and replaced it with a leaf carved from another piece of gourd.

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This last one is a shallow bowl with jellyfish.  I burned the jellyfish first and then added a touch of subtle color with oil  based colored pencils.  The top is finished with seagrass. You can see a demonstration of my working on the jellyfish in my most recent video on negative burning pyrography here.

That's all for now!  Getting started on some new work with more carving and it is especially more enjoyable with my fantastic new carver I got from MDI at the PA Gourd Fest last month.  Stay tuned...I just might put up a post or a video review in the future.