Carved gourd, carving on gourd

This month is all about carving. What I've learned as I've tried new
things has truly been an experience. I must say I couldn't have gotten
nearly as far without the help of two great carvers, Bonnie Gibson and
Margaret Schroeder.
I had first thought this would be a simple newsletter to do, however,
after doing research on the net, in magazines and books, I've learned
there are as many ways to carve a gourd as there is to do anything else
with a gourd. So I hope to cover some of the basics here, and hope you
will enjoy.

TIPS FOR YOUR FIRST CARVING
Tip #1: The first lesson I learned using hand tools
is to wear some protection on your hands, especially
your thumb. After a couple of deep cuts to my
hand due to slips, I started wearing a glove on the
hand that holds the gourd.

Tip #2: Carving takes time and patience, start
with a fairly simple design and work your way from
there.

Tip #3.Woodfiller can help out if you make a
mistake. Also, gourd dust mixed with white glue
works well.

Tip #4: Good lighting is essential while carving.
Many times I would take a piece to a window or
outside and see marks that needed attention.

Tip #5: A set of riffle files come in handy when
you need to get into tight spaces

Tip #5: Deft lacquer works well to spray the
carved area to seal, but can be carved over if
needed. (Can be found at Lowes).

Tip #6: There are many forms of carving on a
gourd, some are rough some are smooth, go with
what you love doing.

Here's a picture of my first carving
where I tried to get a smooth finish.
This was done before I had the riffle
files which I do think would have been
most helpful in the tight spots. You
can see I still want to include painting
when possible with the carving.
Click photo to enlarge.

You can find the riffle files and bits
for carving at Bonnie Gibson's site
www.arizonagourds.com also see some
of her beautiful work.

Also visit Margaret Schroeder's work
here-it will amaze you.

CHEROKEE GATHERING
PICTURES CHECK THEM OUT
THE LAST 4 ALBUMS CONTAIN
THE GATHERING PHOTOS
              CHEROKEE 2005
  I loved this man, Ken Arnold's carving

               Click photo to enlarge

TOOLS USED FOR CARVING
This is by no means all the tools out there you can buy for carving, but some that I used to
work on my carving pieces. I do think you could get carried away with tools working with
carving. A good Dremel will work,which is
what I've used in the past, but I'm
fortunate enough to have an Optima
turbo carver that works great on
carving a gourd and the Dremel bits
fit into it too.