Gourd BobWhite

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?

BobWhite Gourd

Gourd Bobwhite

Gourd Bob White

BobWhite Gourd Carving

BobWhite Feathers on Gourd

BobWhite Gourd

Jan 26 2015
Posted in: Gourd Art

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Sally Smith
January 26, 2015

These are lovely Caryl!

Reply

Caryl
January 26, 2015

Thanks so much Sally!! :-)


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