WIP Hummingbird Vase...part 1

Do you have any gourds in your stash that are so nice that you wait a long time before you do anything with them?  Like the ones that just sit and you stare at them and you don't want to mess them up!  I have a few of those, and this is one of them.  It was a gift from Helen O. from a PAGS holiday luncheon (ahhh two years ago!). 
This gourd is large (pre-cut) and THICK! And begging to be carved.  I am not so much a carver.  I carve, but only minimally.  So I knew that one some level this will be experimental and I really don't want to ruin this beautiful gourd!

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I am not finished with this gourd yet, but I want to published a few posts as a diary of how I went about designing and creating this gourd.  Also including the challenges I faced along the way.  

At first I waffled about what I wanted to put on this gourd.  I was very close to making it a barn owl gourd.  I had some reference photos that I loved and wanted to work with them, but it always ended up as a vignette design and I wanted to use this whole gourd, not just a portion.  I played around with sketching more barn owls in other positions around the gourd, I even had the design drawn on, erased it all and drew it again!  I just wasn’t happy with it.  This gourd did not want to be barn owls.

Then I thought about something under the sea.  I do a lot of those, did you know that I, once upon a time, wanted to be a marine biologist?  Well, that didn't pan out because I am too right brained to have gone into a science major.  Anyways, this gourd said no to that too.

Even though it was still cold, my mind kept turning towards spring.  It was the beginning of March when I began this gourd, and I was thinking of the hummingbird migration.  Maybe hummingbirds would work for this?  

Now I had a few criteria for this gourd.  One, it had to be an all-over design.  Two, it had to have movement.  Three, it had to have carving incorporated along with pyrography.  Ok, well hummingbirds fly so there is easy movement to add there, and they love trumpet vine and I could also use that to move the eye around the gourd.

Thumbnail sketch, Jenn Avery Gourd Art.

As you can see by the above sketch, it doesn’t take a very detailed drawing for me to decide if it is going to work or not.  The real test, however is seeing how it can work on the gourd shape.  What I do next it just take my pencil and lob in some basic shapes, big messy ovals of where I would place the main focus (the hummers).  Then the next major challenge is the vines.

Outlined hummingbird, Jenn Avery Gourd Art

So I could go with realism, or be more stylized in my approach.  I kind of landed somewhere between the two.  The effect I decided on is reminiscent of Art Nouveau.  The trumpet vines could swirl and twist all around the vase, with a few choice areas for the flowers.  I also decided on outlining my hummers and shading them realistically within the outlines, something you often find with Art Nouveau.  I did a lot of drawing, erasing and redrawing to get this to flow just right on the gourd!

Outlined hummingbirds and vines, Jenn Avery Gourd Art

After outlining all the birds and vines, I set to shading in the details.  I am also thinking ahead as I burn to give a lot of contrast where needed, since I plan to be overlaying with colored pencil later on.

Pyrography hummingbirds vase, work in progress, Jenn Avery Gourd Art.

My cat on sketchbook, Jenn Avery Gourd Art.

Then there is the further challenge of getting work done with this little cutie around!  

Next time....getting started on the carving!

Until then, how do you deal with design challenges when gourding?  Do you like to draw out everything on paper or do you go straight to the gourd?  Or a little of both as I do?  Let me know in the comments!

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