Gourd Collections
Please visit my collection of fine art gourds. I have categorized them for you below and if you find one you would like or would like to have one made from a combination of gourds please do not hesitate to contact me, all the gourds are for sale. Join my newsletter and follow my journey from Arizona to Wyoming and my experiments with gourds as a model for casting glass. I will also keep you updated on the K3 Guest Ranch, my summer workshop location. Thank you for visiting my site and viewing my work.
Oh, this is so much fun! I use a gourd as a model for the cast glass design. Working to create glass art expands my creative three dimensional thought process. I have to visualize what the inside and outside surfaces will look like in glass. Transparency separates an original gourd design from an original glass design.
My masks are a combination of southwestern and contemporary expressions. While the basic idea is Native American, the actual layout of each mask is my original design including the shapes and coloring of the copper and paper feathers. I play with textures and materials to create truly unique pieces.
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Ropes and Leather refer to my woven leather covered gourds and my lariat topped gourds. I would classify them both as western, but felt they needed a separate viewing. The lariats are used by cowboys and cowgirls to the point they are to flexible for them, but perfect for me. They are coiled and a pattern added that melts the coil to itself. Both types of gourds are embellished with antlers and other natural materials.
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As a Landscape Architect I feel most at peace when I am surrounded by plants. The yellow sunflower, blue morning glory, and pink magnolia are favorites and work well with burning and carving on the gourd surface. I favor deep earthy colors and using botanicals as a subject matter allows me to create an image for blending color to enhancing depth or layering and contouring of the plant vegetation.
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Having lived in Arizona for 35 years, I really enjoy the Native American patterns and the culturalinterpretation of nature. I try to be true to the design intent while creating a new theme by combining multiple images and accents with my original textures, such as the faux basket or faux leather tooling textures.
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With my roots in Wyoming, I feel that my western themed gourds in faux leather tooling should actually reflect real tooled leather work. I have honed my faux leather tooling which is a combination of actual leather tooling patterns, carving, burning, and color rendering, to mimic reality to the point it will fool you into thinking it is real leather.
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