Gourd Crafts for the first time [Hardcover]

Marilynn Host (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2002 | Series: For the First Time

Most ancient cultures used gourds in every aspect of life. Decorating gourds is everybody's favorite craft, as you'll see from the more than two-dozen varied projects shown here. A handy guide tells you where to find or buy gourds, and how to prepare them. Then use your easily-learned skills with leather-dye, egg-dye, spray and acrylic paint, wax shoe polish, découpage, airbrush, waxed linen, dyed raffia, and beads. Select your projects: storage containers for food, medicine, herbs, seeds, oils, jewelry, and even sacred objects. Turn dipper gourds into ladles, bowls, and cooking utensils, or create musical instruments such as thumb pianos, harps, banjos, drums, and rattles, as well as a variety of masks, earrings and necklaces, piggy banks, bird feeders, birdhouses, toys, candleholders, and luminaries.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Gourds are easily obtained and fun to work with, having an infinite variety of peculiar shapes that lend themselves to imaginative uses. Host's Gourd Crafts for the First Time is a book of basic techniques for cleaning, decorating, and preserving gourds, presented in a question-and-answer project format aimed at beginners. A gallery of works by the author and other artists provides ideas. Peterson's Decorated Gourd has more sophisticated projects involving pyrography (burning) and woven and beaded embellishments. Most are in a folk-art style adapted to the gourd medium. Public libraries not having Ginger Summit and Jim Wedess's The Complete Book of Gourd Craft, which covers most of the same techniques, may want one or both of these for their crafts collections.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Sterling/Chapelle (October 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0806944234
• ISBN-13: 978-0806944234
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 8.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,215,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and useful......., September 24, 2005

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Gourd Crafts for the first time (Hardcover)

GOURD CRAFTS FOR THE FIRST TIME. At last, a book that meets my expectations. Marilyn Host starts with the assumption you have already grown your gourds, or purchased them from a nearby market and are ready to work with them. She covers everything from identifying the individual gourds by type to selecting the general materials you will need for your projects, such as soap, bleach, scouring pads, knives, spoons, glue sticks, scissors, sandpaper, pencils, rags, saws, drills, brushes, paints and dyes, sponges, and twine as well sealing agents. She then describes the steps for preparing the gourd by cleaning the surface and interior, and carving the gourd while it is pliable. Assembly of a specific item may involve combining forms, puncturing and/or extracting sections of the surface, as well as painting and/or decoupage. Using photos and well written text, Goldman describes in great detail the construction of a number of gourd products ranging from containers to decorative pieces.

While this little book is very thorough, the projects are relatively complex and mostly for adults. I personally would use this book with older girls, but not younger children (especially most little boys) unless you are working one on one with a responsible child. If you plan to use gourds for a group craft project, be prepared to do the prep work involving knives and drills yourself. You can then let the kids apply paints, dyes, and glue to their heart's content. There are some nifty ideas for masks, bird houses and luminaries but all require puncturing and cutting. This is an excellent craft book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS WORK IS JUST WHAT THE TITLE STATES IT IS, August 5, 2006

By 

D. Blankenship (The Ozarks) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gourd Crafts for the first time (Hardcover)

Excellent work and publicaiton here! This is one of the first works I have encoundered that is truely for the beginning gourd worker. It is wonderfully illustrated and the text is very, very workable. The author gives step by step instructions, all illustrated of dozens upon dozens of projects and ideas for others. The author gives a good overview of the basics, types of gourds, preparation of the gourd for work, different techniques and different materials that can be used. I most certainly agree with another reviewer here, in that this work probably would not be the ideal one to use for smaller children our large groups. On the other hand, it is just crammed with great ideas. I have been working (mostly carving) gourds for quite a number of years now and have many books on the subject. This book pretty well illustrated the untruth of the old saying "you can't teach a old dog new trick." Recommend this work highly. You probably will want to purchas this one as it is a good reference to fall back on.

5.0 out of 5 stars great book for the beginner, November 29, 2011

By 

kathy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Gourd Crafts for the first time (Hardcover)

Great book for the beginner Gourd crafter! Nice pictures too! I haven't had a chance to make anything yet, but I am looking forward to getting started.