This is the Official Illustrated Wuertz Gourds Festival report:
Well, I did 5 gourds in 4 days - non-stop cutting, cleaning, carving, burning, painting.... my poor little fingers are bony! I'll include photos of some of my gourds, plus some festival stuff.
My crushed glass inlay gourd.
The festival is an annual event, held at the county fairgrounds, and sponsored by the local farm - Wuertz [see connection in the sidebar] - that raises and sells bazillions of gourds.
They have a big building for vendors and dealers - full of every tool and toy related to gourds you could ever imagine (and want to possess) - cutters and polishers and sanders and drillers and fancy laces and jewels and ropes and feathers and... It took a long time to get thru it all... I still don't own all on my wish list - but give me a few years. Another hall is for the stuff entered for judging - fantastic imaginations at work. The classes take place in a third unheated building or outside in the elements. On Sunday we (the students) finally picked up all the tables and moved under the roof next to the sheep pens out of the rain - there were no sheep, fortunately.
The weather was terrific one full day and most of another. The other two days it was cold and windy - carving in 4 layers of clothes is difficult! I really learned a lot - in spite of some of the teachers.
-I took Bonnie Gibson's filigree class - great! - but then she always is...
-Did a pine needle rim for the first time - much easier than I'd thought.
-Took a class on crushed glass [inlaid but not polished smooth] that was terrific - but messy!
-The fire lizards was on how to mix and blend leather dyes - I'd have enjoyed this one a lot if the instructor had been better.
-The celtic carving is okay, but tedious. And it was the last day; the attention span was wearing down. Before was officially over, I excused myself, went over and told Chris we could go home if he wanted. He had the engine started about 25 seconds later. But the drive was a challenge - strong winds all the way.
Most classes were 4 or 5 hours each - and many of them were just how-tos - we didn't have time to complete the project on several. I'm very pleased with my glass inlay one. I'll try again on my own on almost all of these class techniques.
It was really terrific having the RV right there in the back lot - the commute to class was a short walk. Chris was sick the first couple of days - a bad cold - and then bored out of his tree the rest. We didn't have an internet connection!!! [Eeeeek!] He did read 4 books - we were smart enough to stop at the library before leaving Yuma.
Bonnie Gibson's work - one of my teachers
Fire lizard class
Outdoor class on a nice day!
Bonnie Gibson teaches us filigree.
Some of the judged entries - the 6 little white round globes are sitting on a large elk (?) antler - really cool!
My pine needle wraps.
