Gourd Crafting Safety

Gourds are perhaps one of the greatest art mediums going today. They are hard with a wooden like shell without grain, they can be cut, carved, chip carved, burned, stained, painted, penciled, and people even embellish them with beads and feathers, and even inlay them. Not only are they an artistic medium, gourds are also functional. They are three dimensional instead of a flat canvas, they are shaped like bowls and scoops, they can be a table center piece, a vase, or even a bun warmer bowl, personally I make trinket boxes with mine.

However if you would like to work with gourds, there are some precautions you should be aware of. Gourds as they dry and harden grow mold on them. This should be handled carefully and you should always wear a mask or respirator to protect your lungs. When handling the mold, you should take a wet towel and gently cover or wrap it around the gourd and press inward on all sides to wet down and saturate the spores and the mold to prevent them from going airborne. Once it is saturated, you can place the wet gourd into a bucket for cleaning and scrubbing to remove the mold and the layer of skin from the surface.

When you cut on a gourd, it creates a fine dust particle similar to saw dust, and again as with any exotic woods or even regular wood, you should wear a mask while cutting and sanding. Wood burning a gourd also creates toxic fumes much like anything else that burns, so you should wear a mask and work in a well ventilated area.

The finished product can last several lifetimes if treated properly, gourds have been discovered in Egyptian digs and in Ancient China so they can certainly last a lifetime. If you would like to see a large variety of different peoples art styles on gourds as well as a variety of shapes and sizes of gourds, visit The Gourd Reserves Gourd Artists Gallery for a diverse display of Gourd Art.

While you are there, learn more about gourds, we have information from the Gourd ID Chart to hand pollination. We have artwork from our own to that of many other artists, from paint to wood burning to sculpting. Take your time, there are over 600 pages of gourd information there, and who knows, maybe your next craft or art project will have something to do with a gourd. – The Gourd Reserve