Winter Issue — #1
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Feature Arts & Craft Medium“So What About Gourds?”We sent out one of our team, Heather Yuen, to find what “gourds” are all about… What follows is a fascinating interview between Heather and Kerry Wiens, and an introduction to the world of Gourd Art. Kerry Wiens is a Calgary artist. Kerry creates a variety of art: paintings, pottery, 3D sculpture and gourd art.
HY: Gourd art is a new medium for many of us. We’ve asked Kerry to tell us about it. Kerry, tell me about your start in Gourd art. KW: I had thought about it for years, vaguely knowing a bit about it as an African art craft. Then last January, I was in the library and there on the “New & Notable ”shelf was a book on Gourd Art. I checked it out and read it and I was hooked. The book lists several web sites which I used to find out more and I did some surfing on the net on my own as well and found lots of information. It’s quite big in the US, Mexico and Australia. There are societies and organizations such as the American Gourd Society. HY: Describe Gourd art for us. KW: I see it as an all-purpose 3D art. You can do almost anything with gourds – sculpture, masks, vessels. You can play with color and design, carve shapes and add on beads, pine needles, rope, gold leaf. To me, it’s the perfect canvas. HY: What do you love about it? KW: I really like the 3D nature of it. For me, it fills lots of creative needs, more than just painting does. I also like that I’m working with a natural and imperfect thing… so I need to come up with a design that works for that particular gourd. They come in a variety of shapes and textures. HY: What are the hurdles? KW: Buy the gourds CLEANED! It’s a lot of work to clean them. You can buy them with the outsides cleaned anyway. The gourds are grown on large gourd farms; some are 50 acres in size. They are planted in April and grow till October when they die off. They are left in the fields to dry out. In the process, they get quite mouldy on the outside. The mould creates markings on the surface, that remain after cleaning, and which create texture and interest on the surface. The gourds are harvested the end of March. Other hurdles include the need for tools. I use a jigsaw to cut shapes out of them or to make lidded vessels. I also use a small drill with a wire brush attachment to clean the inside of the gourd. I use a wood-burning tool to burn in the design and also to add depth to part of the design… not everyone uses this but I quite like the effect. I also use a door knob cutting tool to make circles in the gourds. Some people use wood carving tools, as if they were carving wood. When you clean the insides, there is a lot of dust created which you don’t want to breathe or get in your eyes, so I wear a surgical mask, and I’m making a small air cleaner to catch and filter the air. Because of the mould, you don’t want to breathe the dust. The other hurdle is the cost of getting the gourds across the border…. It’s easy to find the gourd farm websites and order from them. These sites have pictures of the different types of gourds so that part is easy. If the gourds come by a courier, they may charge you half the price again in brokerage fees to get them over the border. If you have them delivered by mail there’s no brokerage, though it takes longer and they open the packages at some point. But it’s a lot cheaper. HY: What makes gourd art unique or different? KW: It’s a very unique 3D palette. I like to express art in a 3 dimensional way. I find it really pushes the imagination to work with weird shapes. It’s unusual and I also like that it is a “natural thing”. HY: Tell us how you work with them. Describe the process a bit. KW: You look at the gourd and figure out a design for that gourd. Then you cut any openings; for example, if it’s a lidded vessel or a bird house. I then burn in the design with the wood burning tool and add any 3D effects. Then I start to dye the gourd. I use leather dyes, which come in lots of colors. The background color is dyed in over the whole gourd. Then other dyes or acrylic paints are used to add the details of the design. Once this is completed, I spray the gourd with a lacquer to seal it. Don’t brush the lacquer finish on, as it lifts the leather dyes. Final touches can include add-ons like beads or pine needles, or whatever. HY: What kind of things do you make? KW: There are lots of things that you can make. I make lidded containers, bird houses, bird feeders, vases, lanterns, rattles (the African shekerie). I made some Christmas decorations as well including a crèche. HY: Any sources of information for someone who’s interested in learning more?KW: There is a lot of information on the internet: you can find books, gourd farm websites and gourd organizations such as the American Gourd Society. And the public library has lots of books too, such as The Decorated Gourd by Dyan Mai Peterson. Editorial Comments:
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