Recent CGS Member Events

"Butterfly Dance" represents the joy and freedom children express in their play. When I taught Kindergarten, I was able to experience that exuberance daily in so many ways. The carefree dance and play of children outdoors was a large part of my days for many years as a teacher. Young children express such wonder at the simple things in life, such as flowers and butterflies. This gourd is a reminder of those days.

It was carved with hand carving tools. I tried to carve each child's clothing and hair a bit different from the others. The gourd is waxed, the carving was dyed black, and a bit of colour was added to the butterflies using the oil pencil crayons.

The carved Inukshuk was inspired by the one I see out my front window daily, and comes from our time in the north. Inukshuks are commonly used as markers on a trail. All along the highway from Rae-Edzo where we lived (1977-90) to Yellowknife, we would see Inukshuk built along the side of the road. If you were with a "local" person, they could tell you their story, "Joe’s camp is just down there a few miles" or "That is the easiest route to get to....". Each had meaning beyond being decorative. We now have an inukshuk in our front garden. It means "home" and is also a reminder of the north to us. It was carved using a dremel!

- Barbara Bellchambers

“Last year someone I knew was going to Cuba and I asked her if she anything done in a gourd would she buy and I would pay her. Well she brought back this gourd with a hole on the front and back carved out of it. It was all she could find but I thougt it was neat. Then I was looking in the Widess and Summit book on carving gourds and there was the gourd. It is called a Guiro, an ancient gourd rasp, a musical instrument popular in Afro-cuban culture. Played by rubbing a stick across the grooves to make a washboard sound. So I thought that would be neat to enter into the competition as it was something different that no one else would do. And thats what it is and why I did it. It was done with regular wood gouges and a v tool, with a bit of sanding between the grooves. It is the natural color and finished with a poly finish.”

- Pat Alford

At one time the world was covered in darkness.

There was no light for Raven to admire his brilliant plumage and look at himself. All the light was locked away tightly in a wooden chest, owned by an old man with a beautiful daughter. So Raven turned himself into a hemlock needle which he tricked the old man’s daughter into swallowing. Once inside the daughter, Raven turned into the form of a small child. The daughter gave birth to Raven in child’s form. Both the daughter and the old man loved the child very much. The child cried to see inside the chest. So the old man opened the chest so that the child could play with the light. But raven quickly changed back to his bird form and stole the light. He flew high into the sky, dropping bits of light as he flew higher. These became the stars. This awakened eagle who began to chase raven higher and higher. Finally Raven dropped what was left of the light and it fell to earth and became the sun. The sun cast its glow on the world, allowing the old man to see the face of his daughter and the beauty of the world for the first time.

This pleased him very much.

"The raven’s head is carved using a reciprocating tool. The beak is a small gourd that has been added to give it the correct shape. Raven has lifelike glass eyes that were inlaid using Apoxie Sculpt. The symbol for the sun on the chest was carved using a rotary tool. The wings were cut from another gourd then attached with Apoxie Sculpt. Everything is painted with acrylic paints and sealed with Deft."

- Brigette Thompson

”… it came from a book I bought from Thompson's Woodcarving and it is based on the ancient South West style.

I took some books and stacked them up to about three and a half inches high and took a real nice large round gourd and laid a pencil on top of the books and did the spin the gourd thing and presto you have a nice line on the gourd that is fairly even around it. Now next I drilled a small hole just above the line to start my hand held scrollsaw with a small blade and cut all the way around the gourd. I then went ahead and laid out the slits for the eyes did the same thing except I drilled the holes in the centre part of the eyes, they are not to large a slit some where around one quarter to five sixteenth of an inch wide and two inches long and try to get things lined up and centred on the gourd you know like the eyes and the mouth, oh yea the mouth that is about one and a quarter of an inch in diameter and I used a neck portion about an inch or so long of a dipper gourd to do that part and when you do drill the hole for the mouth drill it a little smaller and use a file to bring it to a nice tight fit, use some wood glue and leave about half an inch of the round piece sticking out so much for the mouth.

I drilled small holes from ear to ear and put some Ginny hen feathers in those holes I just drilled, you can use glue but I'm lazy I just stuck them in and they have been there since the summer so they should be ok as long as you drill the holes a little smaller, you can use any type of feathers you have around and if not borrow some from one of your neighbours chickens or buy some that part is up to you I won't say where mine came from.now for the finish I sanded the edges and the eyes and of course the mouth area now I used some reddish ink and did two washes, now I said washes not a solid color just light washes to get that older look.now to the green motifs as eye brows and the upside down ones under the eyes, the upside down ones you got that right.ok what I did for the upper eye brows I sketched one the size I was happy with and did it on paper and cut it out and traced it on each side above each eye, did the same on the bottom but made them bigger to look the same as in the book and gives it that down south look.now that you have traced them on I used acrylic green paint to paint them and oh yea you turn the lower ones upside down that's the way they did it so it does look kind of cool, so do it just for fun and then wait till the next day an sand the green stuff so it makes it look older ok just enough to take some away in some areas and leave other areas a little darker.we are finally getting to the end factor.I used water baste varathane add a little water to it and it goes on a lot easier and looks pretty good and I'm thinking on doing another one.so if you do it I know you will have fun isn't that what its all about so give it a try................your gourder friend---------Don Swayze from Fenwick “