The second gourd in my "first gourds" set is a little bobwhite bird I made from a small bottle gourd.
I just love this little bird gourd! Isn't he so cute?
We have tons of bobwhites on our property and (I'll admit that) I sometimes try to engage them in conversation when I'm working in the garden. I don't know if you've ever been around bobwhites, but they are super talkative and when they call out with their "Bob White! Bob White" whistle, I often call back with my own version of a "Bob White! Bob White" whistle. I have no idea what they think of my bobwhite talk, but they do often whistle back to me (or else they're telling each other that there is a crazy person nearby)!
Anyway, I think these little Chatty Cathy's are incredibly cute too. I especially love their round, fat bellies and the way they waddle when they run. When I saw this gourd in the garden, I thought it looked just like a fat little bobwhite.
So, I decided to try some pyrography (wood burning) and turn it into an abstract bobwhite bird. I hand drew and then wood burned the designs on the gourd and then I dyed it with various color ink dyes. Finally, I added some glass eyes and created a beak from a small piece of oak I found in our yard, carved, dyed black and glued to the gourd.
This gourd is about 8 inches tall and a little over 5 inches wide. I definitely made a lot of mistakes on it, but I also learned a whole lot about wood burning with this little guy too. While it's certainly not perfect, I must say that I really love this gourd! I especially love how his back feathers turned out.
What do you think of my little Bobbie?
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January 26, 2015
These are lovely Caryl!
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January 26, 2015
Thanks so much Sally!! :-)