Decorated Gourds

"Poppies" Gourds

These gourds are decorated with poppies fashioned from small round gourds that grow wild in New Mexico. The shell of these gourds is very thin, and after cleaning and cutting shells into petal pieces, I reinforce them with 2 or 3 coats of Mod Podge. The petals are adhered using Liquitex Light Modeling Paste, which has dimension, and stays put without sliding. The modeling paste dries hard, and can be painted.

Some of the modeling paste was mixed with acrylic paint to give the leaves some texture.

The base of the gourd in the photo on the right is a roll of polymer clay which was baked right on the gourd prior to attaching the flowers.