Types of Gourd Art

Series Summary

Gourd art, or gourd decorating, is an ancient tradition among many countries and indigenous populations. Artists will paint on the shell of dried gourds, and may also process the gourd by carving, sanding, burning or dying the gourd to enhance their work of art. Once thought to be only a craft, gourd art has developed into a featured art form in some areas of the country and has been the subject of home and garden television shows and several art galleries and magazines. You can find the oldest running gourd festival in North Carolina, and the American Gourd Society in Kokomo, Indiana.

In this free video series, our expert will demonstrate how to make gourd art. She will give instructions on how to create several gourd crafts. The series will include making a Halloween decorations, a shadow box, and a bowl, all made from gourds. These easy and fun artworks are perfect decorations for a Thanksgiving or autumn party and are great for the whole family to enjoy together.

Video Transcript

"On behalf of Expert Village, my name is Karen LoCasale, and I'm here to tell you about gourd art. Gourd art, there's three different kinds of gourd art that I specialize in. There's lots of different art out there, everybody, that's kind of what's nice about gourds and working with them, everybody has their own way of doing things, their own interpretations. Artists that work with other mediums work with gourds so everybody is completely different. The three that I do mainly are gourd masks, I do bowls with designs on them, and I do what they call a shadow box where I have cut a box type out and then added my embellishments inside of the gourd. So these are the three different kinds that I do the most."