How to Make a Baby Rattle From a Gourd
Most people think that baby rattles have to be shiny plastic do-dads with little plastic beads in them. Unfortunately these types of rattles, while bright, colorful and cute, can break, causing potential harm to the infant. Making a gourd baby rattle is a safe, natural alternative.
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Things You'll Need
- Gourd
- Food dye/non-toxic paint
- Rotary tool/Woodburning tool
- Non-toxic sealant
Instructions
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Take a fresh gourd, preferably one with a long neck'on it. Drill a very tiny hole in one end in an unobtrusive place. This is so the inside of the gourd can dry out. This is all you will need to do with it for starters. Make sure that the hole is not too big and keep it someplace where insects cannot crawl inside it.
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The gourd needs to dry out. This is normally done the old fashioned way, by simply leaving the gourd lying out where the air can get at it. Eventually the shell of the gourd turns hard as wood and all the meat inside dries up, leaving the seeds to rattle around in there when you shake it.
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Once the gourd is completely dry, you can easily paint it with some all-natural food coloring. Paint pretty designs in many colors but make sure that you use something completely non-toxic such as paint that has been rated as 100 percent safe. To finish the paint job and make it shiny, coat it with some non-toxic shellac as a top-coating.
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You can even use a wood-burning tool to burn designs or even lettering into the gourd to assist you in decorating it. If you choose to do this however, you may want to do it before you dye the gourd as it is much easier to see what you are doing that way. Also, a rotary carving tool could be used but the shell of a gourd is very thin so you won't be able to press very hard when you carve your designs.
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Around the handle of the gourd you may want to tie a buckskin thong to give the baby something to chew on when he or she begins teething. This, of course is optional but the thong also helps with storage of the rattle, as you can hang it up on a hook somewhere, which works well as long as you do not forget where you left it. Make sure, for the safety of the infant, that there are no unsafe dyes in the rawhide.
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Tips & Warnings
Get creative. Look up patterns in children's coloring books and use those to paint your designs if you are having trouble finding ideas.
Do not attach small beads or other colorful small objects to the rattle as babies tend to put those things in their mouths and could easily swallow them.
If you choose to decorate the rattle with burned designs be very careful as wood-burner etcher tools are extremely hot, and can easily burn your skin.
Resources
- Photo Credit Gourd baby rattle photo by Kristie Karns
