I've seen decorated gourds before, but nothing like these elaborate colorful ones that I saw last weekend at the "Running of the Gourds" festival at the fairgrounds in Casa Grande, AZ. It was organized by the Wuertz Farm.
My favorites were the masks,
but there were also some fun quirky creatures.
Besides the decorated gourd exhibit, there were vendors to sell you those paints, inks, feathers and other items used to decorate them ... and classes to teach you how to use them.
There were thousands of gourds in all shapes and sizes from Wuertz Farm to get you started. Here are Nancy and Paula in front of the welcome sign.
There was fairground food and this running gourd powered by bicycle. And yes, we shared a big funnel cake!
These next few are from an amazing display of the Sonoran Desert with all of the animals and plants made from gourds by artist Marilu Savage from Marana, AZ.
The festival was over an hour from Tucson, and here's the scenery that we passed, mile after mile. It was a warm, sunny day. We passed a lot of cotton fields, which is one of Arizona's major crops.
And just for laughs,
this came across Facebook the other day:
I've linked to: homeward-bound-bom-month-2-on-off-wall.html
Have a colorful day
4 comments:
WOW! I've never seen anything like those decorated gourds. The ones with the feathers are particularly beautiful.
Amazing! Beautiful pieces, and I love the bird, too adorable! I really love gourdwork, but understand they are really hard to clean. But once they're ready, there's so many ways to decorate them. I'm glad you were able to see them!
When I lived in Reno I took a gourd class and was hooked. I made many but when we moved to Spokane the weather wasn't conducive to gourd making (there is a reason it is mostly in AZ and NM...lol). I had so much equipment, a very special woodburning tool which cost mega bucks, a gift from my husband. All was sold when I moved from Spokane to Port Townsend, WA. In Spokane I took up quilting and never looked back.
Those gourds are amazing! That looks like a really fun way to spend a day.
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