Day 2631: Norma is a great teacher!

Aunt Martha: gourd, wood-burning tool, acrylics, fabric & digital.

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Second Wednesday of each month is a Eastside get together.

Each month a member teaches a project for the day.

October is Norma and we learned to make gourd masks.

Norma is a master gourd artist shown in galleries.

She suggested we look up gourd masks on line.

I did & found this one I liked for it's simplicity & color.

She brought the gourds, already cleaned and prepared.

Our first job was to do a rough sketch of our idea.

Then we penciled it onto the mask, followed by

cutting out areas. Norma helped me.

We use a wood burning tool to line the pencil lines on the gourd.

Pencil lines later removed with baby wipes. Ready for color.

Color done ready for satin shellac.

Side story: I believe in angels. One of mine is Aunt Martha. 

She was an artist, and often as I work, I get ideas and thank her.

Today as I got supplies ready from Normas list. Then I had 

the idea to bring a garland of scrap fabric for hair. It worked.

Linda, Josie and Norma, hearing the story 

thought she should be called Aunt Martha.

We were a small group today, four total.

We were missing Erin, Libby, Jody & Sherrill. 

Linda decided on a day of the dead theme.

She had an intricate design and a lot of details & cutting.

Still a work in progress, Linda decided she will 

add flowers to the top, a la "Freida".

Josie decided on Pinocchio, finding a gourd part for the nose.

Pinocchio!

Thank you Norma!

A smile for Thursday ...

Day 2425: ... to make our own.

Kelley: ink, graphite, acrylic and collage.

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Click here for The Chieftains & James Galway, Roscommon.

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If you saw yesterday's Day 2424 blog, here,

you know that Saturday was WonderWoman's birthday.

Last Wednesday's Day 2422 blog, here, mentioned our 

monthly Eastside meeting, a group of eight OC artists ...

who meet the second Wednesday of the month to ...

get together, have fun & do some art. 

Today we were six, greatly missing Erin and Libby.

.

Josie, Linda, Sherrill, Norma and jacki, taken by Jody.

Jody

This month is was Norma's turn to teach a project.

Norma, here, is a gourd artist, sold in museums & galleries.

We each had a gourd to make our own.

my gourd

I was inspired by one of Norma's gourd ...

by Norma Prickett

by Norma Prickett

by Norma Prickett

by Norma Prickett

I decided to make mine a gift for WonderWomen's birthday.

That's why I couldn't post this until today.

(note the wood burning tool warming up, upper right)

First step was a pencil drawing of my planned design.

 

I hoped to put WonderWoman, Superman and the three

 Grandhunks somehow connected? She's all about family.

The next step, after some practice on gourd scraps, was 

going over the pencil lines with the wood burning tool. 

It burns a 1/6" straight line so curves are problematic.

For me, this required patience, and a sometimes steadier hand.

 

Once the drawing lines have been burned into the gourd,

Norma had us to sign the bottom using the wood burning tool.

 

 

 

I decided the horizontal line & below would be blue for the ocean.

I chose light beige for the skin tone.

I liked the color of the gourd, and it's texture, so left it.

There was also some sanding with steel wool, conditioning the gourd with yellow stuff and sealing with some kind of spray, 

but I don't remember the correct order. 

This was about a five hour process. Later at home, 

I added polka dots in various colors to the bathing suits.

A handmade (with help) gift for WonderWoman.

&

*I apologize that I didn't get photos of Jody who made a 

stunning, two tone larger gourd, Josie carved beautiful flowers, Linda carved cute birds on a branch, Sherrill worked on her ceramics project, and thanks again Norma, you're terrific!

A smile for Sunday ...