ARTISANS

Through the years I’ve done pottery and clay work, jewelry, watercolor, acrylics and litho printing in my college days. I Also did color separations for a decal company for several years. When I got married I moved to North County San Diego and met a couple that owned a Stained Glass shop who needed some glass painting done. Of course I said, “I could do that!” That started a 30 year career in stained glass and sandblasting. I did residential, commercial properties, wineries and churches. Thirty years of lifting and handling doors and large panels took a tole on my body so I decided to find something else to try. All it took was one gourd class and I was hooked!

     Gourd decorating is not too different from glass as I see it, I still deal with bright colors and section’s divided up like stained glass, just using paint instead of lead and glass. But I still use glass and copper in some of my designs. Gourds are basically a three dimensional canvas with great possibilities. You can make bowls, vases, thunder gourds, lamps, musical instruments, and much more. If you want to learn more about gourds come on in to the Gallery whenever I’m there and I would love to have a conversation about gourds.

     I love working with gourds so much I had to come up with a machine, with the help of my brother, we call it the Gourd Buddy. If it wasn’t for this machine I would not be doing gourds today.