Articles from past newsletters.

Birdhouses For the past couple of days I've been getting some gourds ready for birdhouses. I just wanted to share a couple of tips with you.

After I've gotten the hole drilled I want to remove most of the insides.
After all the birds need room to get in there and build. It can get pretty dusty
so I just remove some of the seeds and insides and then head to the sink.
Fill the gourd with water and let soak for about an hour. Then dump out the water.

This really helps when you get a gourd with the extremely hard membrane
that refuses to break into pieces. It will soften it and then you can pull it out of the gourd.
I've used this method to remove a hard ball of membrane from inside a narrownecked gourd I was using for a vase. The insides had all hardened together and was so hard it couldn't be broken.

Use a long screwdriver or some tool you have designed and scrape the insides
of the gourd. Sometimes you will get long pieces and can pull these out.
Get whatever you can out and then let the gourd completely dry before decorating.

When you are making a birdhouse and are hoping for a certain bird to call it home be aware that some birds prefer certain sizes of gourds and holes. Here are a few dimensions you may want to consult.

Copyright Law Now that you are getting your creative spirit going with gourds you need to be aware of copyright laws When looking for an idea to use on a gourd be sure that you have permission for it's use. Some of the magazines and books I have state that the pattern is to be for personal use only but others allow the pattern to be used as a design on your project and sold at craft fairs and bazaars.The pattern itself is not allowed to be printed and sold though. All work is legally copyrighted even if it doesn't have the © symbol or state copyright on it.

Health Safety  Today I want to touch on the subject of health safety when
working with gourds. It is a subject that has been brought up quite frequently
lately on the Club Gourd email discussion list that I am a member of.

Gourd crafting is great fun and can become addictive but if you are not careful
about how you handle them they can cause some serious health problems.

If you already have allergy problems you can be very sensitive to the mold that
is formed on the gourds as they dry. Never dry your gourds or store dry but
moldy gourds in the house. That mold will increase your allergy problems or
cause you to become allergic to mold.

I know of someone who has allergies and broke out in a rash all along her hands and arms from cleaning the gourds. Be sure and wear long rubber gloves when cleaning.

You may have read or saw on TV how to sand the outside skin of the gourd off.
This should never be done because of the dust it causes. Instead soak the gourd to loosen the skin and remove with a copper scrubber.

Dust can cause severe lung problems over time if you are not careful so try and
do as much work on a gourd as you can without causing lots of dust.

Keep down the dust when cleaning out an opened gourd by removing all the loose interior and then wetting the inside first and then scraping it out. You can go over the inside with a copper scrubber also.

If you want the interior sanded very smooth use the sandpaper especially made
for wet sanding.

When doing projects with your gourds that cause dust or fumes be sure and use a respirator that will filter out the dust. This also goes for other woodworking projects. The fine particles you cannot easily see are the ones that will be drifting upwards and find their way into your lungs.

Make sure you get a respirator that will fit your face and one suggestion made
was to get one that is washable. The little cheap paper masks just do not work well enough.

Planting Gourds  It is now time to get my gourd plants in the ground.
Our spring has been warmer than usual and my beds are dry enough to plant in.  Having raised beds lets me get into the garden earlier since they dry out faster.

Last year I used black plastic in my bed and I plan on using it again this year.
This year I will add floating row covers. I had kind of forgotten how well they work.
When I used to grow winter squash I would use them as soon as I planted to keep the cucumber beetles off. I always noticed how much faster and bigger they grew with that little extra heat compared to the plants that weren't covered. It kind of slipped my mind until someone mentioned it on the e-mail gourd list that I belong to.

The black plastic kept the weeds down nicely and since my beds are infested
with quack grass and Canada thistle I am hoping to permenantly wipe them out
with the use of the plastic each year. I may be an uphill battle since I can already
see plenty of shoots on their way up.

Bugs on plants OH Boy is it ever hot here in central Pennsylvania.
I'm not complaining much though because I know my gourd plants are loving it.
You can stand there and almost watch them grow. Some are vining with some
male blossoms on. We had a good rain last week to water them and now they
are due for another dose of fertilizer.

I had a little bit of a problem with cucumber beetles on the egg gourds.
Those pesky things seem to know exactly when you set them out. I took
some lime and sprinkled the leaves with it and it seems to have really helped.
They didn't go after the hardshell gourd plants much at all.

Gardeners around here use lime to help keep the deer and rabbits from
eating their vegetable plants too. I've been dusting everything since I noticed
some of my sweet corn nibbled on. I always end up with volunteer sunflowers
in the garden since I feed the birds. Deer love to eat these too so they get a
dusting also. (note)We haven't had a good growing season here since I wrote
this little article in 2001.  Hoping for a good one in 2005.

Queen Anne's Lace   The Queen Anne's Lace is blooming and I've been busy gathering the flowers for pressing. I like to use them to add a touch of lace to my gourd creations.
I have a very simple pressing mechanism. It is just two boards with bricks on top for weight.  Gather the flowers after the dew has dried. Cut off the stems and lay flowers flat between two pieces of paper and cardboard.  You can put a few layers together, put them between the two boards and then weight it down with 3 or 4 bricks.

It then takes a few weeks for the flowers to be ready. All moisture needs out of the flowers before using on any projects.

When using them on the gourds I first prepare the gourd with any color or stain then give it a layer of sealer. Let dry well. I use Mod Podge as an adhesive to apply the flower and then apply 2or 3 coats over top, drying between each. Then put another coat of sealer of your choice.

Harvesting   The gourd growing season will soon be over. Gourd growers in the colder areas of the country always worry if their gourds have matured enough. It is important to let them on the vine as long as possible.

You may have heard you need to remove the gourds before they are hit with a frost. I think this misconception has come about because of the small ornamental gourds with their colorful skins that are used for fall decorations. Sure their skins could be damaged with a frost but we have no such concerns with the hardshell gourds grown for crafting purposes.

We are more worried about maturity and thick shells. Even when the leaves are blackened with frost the vines still can supply the gourds some nourishment.  So leave those gourds in the fields as long as possible.

Diseased plants  What started out as a good gourd growing season ended up in a disaster. By July 4th the gourd plants were growing lush with hundreds of baby gourds. A few days later I noticed brown spots and yellow leaves starting.

Some folks on the Clubgourd internet list were noticing the same thing and we started spraying with copper fungicide. The trouble was every time I sprayed, it rained. That is what started the problem. Rain and humidity.

Things started slowly and I was hoping to stop it from spreading anymore and so I kept spraying hoping for the dry weather that would help control it. Unfortunately the dry weather never arrived and I gave in to the fact that this season was a bust.

There were a few gourds that had grown to mature size and so I had some hope. But now I am finding most of those gourds rotting. Luckily I had a bed planted in another, drier area that did well. They were mostly small, ornamentals that I use for Christmas ornaments.

My mistake was not spraying before the disease arrived. Of course this was the first time it ever happened and so I wasn't looking for it.

I will be planting in new locations next year and using these areas for a different purpose.

Luckily I do have a few suppliers I buy gourds from but it would have been nice to have my own fields filled with gourds growing. Now I will have to wait until next year and try again.

Wobbly gourds  If you have a gourd that won't stand or is wobbly here are some ways to fix it.

You can make stands or feet for the gourd with clay, glass stones, sea shells, wood or pieces of gourds. You can probably think of some more things to use.

A base can be made by making a ring with clay big enough for the gourd to sit on.  I then press the gourd into the clay to form it to fit. Bake the clay according to package directions and when cool glue the gourd onto the ring fitting the gourd in the same position as you first pressed it.

Another base I use when I want something a little more substantial is made from a homemade recipe. Mix together 2 parts fine sawdust and 1 part flour. Add just enough water to hold it together.

Make a ball big enough to fit the bottom of the gourd and press it down some. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over it and finish pressing it down with the gourd. Lift off the gourd and plastic. There will probably be some cracking on the edges. Just press them back together. You can let this air dry or speed it up in a low temperature oven. I use wood glue when I want to attach it to the gourd.

This base can be sanded smooth and you can also smooth some wood putty on to even out small cracks.

I have used this same recipe for making individual feet or parts for gourds such as ears and noses.

If you have some leftovers put it in an airtight container and place in the refrigerator.
It will keep for a few weeks.

Tools  A dilemma that happens to all new gourd crafters and also some veteran gourd crafters is finding the right tools for the job.
Let's face it. We can't just drive to our local tool center and walk to the gourd crafting aisle. That would be nice but we may as well wake up from that dream.

Cleaning the gourds isn't a big problem. Some water, a copper scrubber, dull knife and a little muscle will do it. Then you can just paint it as is.

When you start cutting the gourd and cleaning the insides is where the problems set in. What works best you ask?

My first cutting tool was a hacksaw my husband got for me. It got the job done but was hard to use and would frequently get stuck in the gourd. Basically all you could do was cut the top off the gourd.

Next I used a round hacksaw blade. It didn't have a handle and it was a little hard on the hands. I could cut out shapes with this blade and that was one thing I liked about it. If you fixed it up with a handle to make it easier to use it would probably be a pretty nice little cutting tool.

But what if you wanted a bowl with a lid? You would need a very thin blade for that job. So I turned to the Exacto saw blade. It worked well but is a weak blade and I broke a few. It's also tiring on the hand and I wouldn't want to cut very many that way.The fastest and easiest way though is with a mini jigsaw. I have the Microlux made by MicroMark. I just zip through my gourd projects with it. You are talking a lot more money to go this way and unless you are really cranking out gourd projects you may feel it's not worth the cost.

For scraping the interior of the gourd you can try a sharpened spoon, seashell or grapefruit knife. Some crafters make their own tools using an assortment of flat washers attached to dowel rods. These can be used in the long necks of dipper gourds. Sandpaper of different grit sizes is needed for smoothing the inside and rim of a bowl or getting rid of some of the rough spots on the shell. These are easy to find at your local tool center.

You can even find tools made by gourd crafters for sale on the internet. Just type in "gourd tools" in your favorite search engine.

Even if you have lots of tools on hand, there always seems to come a time when you have to go searching for something a little different.

Penguins