50/365 gourds

My first gourd was given to me by Jim, on the way home from one of my visits.  It was fat with a handle of sorts.  "It's a sha-woman's rattle." Jim said, and surely it was.  I painted it with mostly rain and thunder bolts, because these things resonate with me.  It had colored floss around the handle, and feathers hanging.  There is no picture of it to be found, unfortunately.  But that gourd rattle brought me on a lot of journies.
I remember playing the Kalimba while Jim and his son washed gourds.  "Music makes the work go faster." Jesse said.  The gourds dried in the California sun, ready to be made into more rattles, perhaps, or special bowls.
I've used miniture gourds for armature for my dolls.  You can see the distinct shape of the gourd in my Prosperity Doll.  I've used it for a couple of little figures as well.

made into bowls to hold the Go stones, a game of Gomoku in progress

*A free-write is a type of automatic writing, where you just go with your stream of consciousness non-stop. There's no thought to spelling or grammar, and no editing of words. Supposedly this opens the mind up to greater creativity. They can be 5, 10 or 20 minutes long. Suggestions for freewrites are always welcome. Visit Evie, with whom I freewrite, at the space between colors.

snow like butterflies

Yesterday, there was a wildly wonderful snow shower in the morning. The flakes were huge, and looked like white butterflies swirling against the window. Was this winter's last hurrah, happening at the precise moment of the Vernal Equinox? It was so beautiful!

Today, the sun is out, in the low 40's. Spring is here, despite slightly below average temps.

Seems like a big spring cleaning is due at my place! I could use a few helpers!

For the equinox yesterday, me and ev decorated some Easter eggs... she painted hers, and I did 2 egg-shaped gourds covered with polymer clay. I'll post pics soon.

gourd dolls

Wise Woman, and Best Friends

 

 

With The Prosperity doll I also used a gourd.

dresses and bowls

Here are some tiny gourd bowls I've been doing lately... plus Lucinda in her new dress. :)

bowls and tranny's

Seems that since I've joined the "Creative Everyday" challenge, that I have not been so creative! I had a bad bout of asthma for a couple of days, and that has gotten me down, and led to a lot of sleeping. There's not much one can do when you can't breathe! Now I'm feeling a lot better, and trying to get back on the horse.

I did make a couple of little items... not that I know what I will do with them. Worked with some very small gourds, and made bowls out of them. One is covered with teeny gold beads and sparkles (Beadazzles), so it is a "pot of gold". I think I will put it with my Prosperity Doll, and fill it with little scrolls of paper, saying such things as "love, family, friendship" etc. The things, other than money, that make one prosper.

I also made a gourd bowl that is partially covered with millifiore canes. It looks so pretty, almost like beadwork. It's small... made from what they call Jewelry gourds. It will be a bowl for another art doll. I'd like to do some work that is similar to R.C. Gorman's older paintings of big women. Many of them have a bowl, in the woman's hands, or somewhere beside her.

As I write this, it occurs to me that I haven't been totally uncreative, after all.

Oh, I also used a gourd for armature of a strange looking big nosed man that I thought would be some type of fantasy figure. Turns out, after painting the face some, that he looks like one ugly transvestite! He may be somebody's fantasy, but not mine!

It snowed a bit today, but still not the big snow that I've been wanting. Now it's raining, so it's turning into a bunch of mush. Where are the blizzards like we used to have? So far, nothing even close to that.

When I get my friend's camera, I'll take pictures of the little gourd bowls. The big nosed tranny may stay unrevealed, though!

Hunter's Moon

I woke at 5am to the light of the moon shining in my bedroom. It's a full Hunter's moon today, and as glorious as ever, lighting the sky before dawn.

My 2 currents dolls are taking the backseat today, as my creative juices are wanting to flow in another direction. It's good to have half a dozen things going at the same time, I figure. That way, there's always something to pick up when the attention span starts waning on one particular piece.

I expect my photo card reader to arrive in the mail today. Found myself waiting for it yesterday, until I realized it was Columbus day, and there was no mail delivery.

I took a couple of pictures of the gourds that I'll be working on next, and will edit this post to include that as soon as I can get the pics up. They are miniature gourds, and some are the shape and size of a chicken egg. Let's see where they take me. I may try a bit of pyrography on them, but I'm not so versed in that, really. I'll probably cover the egg gourds completely (with clay), and use them as an armature shape for some Ladies of Abundance, which I haven't made since I first started claying 8 or 9 years ago.

The sky is lightening up now, and it looks to be a very gray overcast day, so far. I don't much mind that.