Gourds
with Southwestern Motifs
Bonnie Gibson

Bonnie Gibson devotes the first quarter of her book, Gourds with Southwestern Motifs, to providing a general overview of the tools most commonly used in crafting gourds; such as cleaning tools, woodburners, and carvers. It also covers materials that crafters typically use to decorate and embellish their gourd art, e.g., polishes and other finishes, paints, dyes, and clays.

The remainder of the Bonnie Gibson book is devoted to presenting a large variety of techniques most commonly used by gourd artists, as well as her own special tips and suggestions in a series of projects, each clearly presented and well photographed.

The projects that Bonnie Gibson includes range from sponge painting a gourd to create a look of pottery decorated with petroglyphs; creating a Gourd Drum Necklace; mask making; a Native Rattle; instruction for creating a traditional coiled basketry weave; applying gold leaf; the use of inlay; and incorporating multiple techniques in a single project, such as utilizing woodburning and carving in combination, to create and decorate bowls and lidded containers for example. Gourds with Southwestern Motifs, is a comprehensive 'general purpose' gourd crafting book that covers a wide range of techniques, materials, and styles.

Paperback