Pekin Art Show, Walter Piehl, Art and Wine Walk, How to Clean a Gourd

I'm excited for tomorrow - Pekin, North Dakota, a small town in the eastern part of the state, is hosting an artists reception. They are hosting their BIG art show and sale this weekend and the reception is a nice preview event. Wine and snacks will be served and Walter Piehl, premier cowboy artist, will be there. He is the judge for the art show. I wish he'd want to do a little art trading!!!

The June Art and Wine Walk was last Saturday - I had good success selling at River City Jewelers so that was awesome. I said goodbye to my grain bin piggy bank - the one with the skunk skulking nearby! It went to a good home - the editor of our local newspaper and his wife bought it. They live in the country and it seems they have a real life quonset, complete with a skunk family, on their property. Now they have one for inside the house, too!

Our daughter, Jennifer and two granddaughters were here for a long weekend. We LOVE having them and miss them dearly when they go home. They provide us with lots of fond and fun memories!

Since I've had some inquiries on my gourd art, I thought I'd share my best tips for cleaning the hard shell variety, once they are completely dried out. I take a large plastic tub, fill it half way with hot water and detergent. Add a bunch of gourds and lay old wet towels on top to try to weight them down so they stay in the water. Add more water till the tub is full. Put the lid on and wait overnight.

The next day, take the gourds out, one at a time so they stay wet. Use a copper scrubbie to remove the white and black molds, under running water. I wear rubber gloves because I think it is sort of a gross job. If some mold is stubborn, I use a butter knife to scrape it. Rinse. Set aside on a towel to air dry. Be sure there are no holes, where birds have pecked at them, or mice have nibbled, before you put them in the water to soak.

Gourd clock photos

I finally got a few photos taken *actually my hubbie did it* of two of my mini gourd clocks. We had a busy weekend with our oldest daughter home, with her two little girls. They are one and three years old and both of them are happy, joyous toddlers. We LOVE having them here!

Today I'm continuing my cartooning unit with my art kids. We learned about Charles Schulz and Roy Lichtenstein the previous two weeks. Today our artist is Keith Haring. After learning about an artist we are sketching in note books. Each student will have a collection of cartoons by the end of our unit. They will then pick and choose features that they like and put together their own, unique cartoon character. Hopefully, they will use the character in a short 3 or 4 panel comic strip. It has been really fun for me to learn about cartooning and some of the artists who are famous because of the cartoon or comic strip look of their work.

I hope to get the mini-gourd clocks listed on etsy after the Valentine Art Show on Thursday.

Gourds are next on my agenda

Wow, it seems like I've been gone for a long time. I visited our daughter's family in Minnesota, helped her in her classroom with an art project (she teaches 3rd grade - we did plaster masks on our faces) and came home sick. Then it was Christmas with my parents and a couple siblings and off to Mexico for a family vacation, beach-side. How fun to ditch the winter gear, wear sandals and soak up the warm Mazatlan sun!

Now back to teaching, trying to get my online shop up and running and sewing doll clothes for our grand daughter. I finished that project this afternoon(without a pattern or measurements - I wonder how good my memory will be?), and called her to tell her the clothes are on the way to her house. She was so engrossed in telling me something or other about Cinderella and her cousins, that I don't think she ever caught on that I sent a present her way. She is three and cute as can be!

I am excited about creating a new 'batch' of gourd mini-clocks. I ordered the clock inserts tonight and hope to start cleaning the gourds and leveling the bottoms a bit so they stand without going bottoms up! I can't decide whether to stain or paint them, maybe I'll do some of each. I'm going to add some naturals, like long pine needles, twine, copper and leather lacing to some of them. I love gourds; I think they are beautiful little sculptures. I'll post some photos when I get one finished up.

I hope the new year is off to a wonderful start for you and yours!

I can't figure out how to put labels under my first post so guess I'll do it this way!