A Gourd Day

It's been said that we should strive to learn something new everyday. Well, yesterday was a very gourd day as we learned a lot of gourd things about gourds! The Pinal County Fairgrounds are not far away and when we were passing by there last week we saw a sign advertising a Gourd Festival for this past weekend. We had some idea as to what Gourds are, but had no idea what a Gourd Festival would be. So we went to have a look. On entering the grounds we saw lots and lots of gourds of every size and description lying about as if they'd recently been harvested. Then we entered the first exhibition building and saw art like we've never seen before. A total new medium for us. Gourds of every size had been cleaned, cut, burned and stained or painted into incredible pieces of art. The judging had taken place on Saturday and ribbons were proudly displayed. When we went into the second building we got a sample of the industry that has developed around the craft and more examples of what can be done with a good gourd from jewelry to Native Indian drums. Don't forget to click to enlarge the pictures if you wish to really see the intricacies of the art work.

We bought 3 of the "raw" product to polish and see how they turn out.

The "raw" gourd corral

Our favorite - "Narwal"