Gourdlandia is a small fiefdom in which gourds rule! It’s an enclave of creativity, passion, and dedication to this humble cucurbit. My husband Otto and I grow gourds, and I turn them into lamps and other functional works of art. Although we are both now offi cially of retirement age, we hope to continue extolling the praises of our favorite vegetable to visitors from near and far for years to come.
As a child, I spent hours playing with my Lite-Brite in the darkness of the closet and making cellophane creations that would catch the light. Later, I dabbled in everything and frequently lit up my creations: papiermâché and pottery lamps, stained glass, even gingerbread homes glowed from within. My making took a back seat when I became a midwife. After 25 years and more than 1,100 babies, I longed to get artwork back into my life. I met a gourd on the side of the road, and “the rest is history.”
“As a child, I spent hours playing with my Lite-Brite in the darkness of the closet.”
People and gourds go way back, to the beginning of the Holocene, in Africa. Early farmers growing primitive grains would have found gourds to be useful containers. Since then, they have been grown all over the world and used as vessels, utensils, musical instruments, fl oats for fi shing nets, religious icons, and much more.1 Gourdlandia has received lots of attention recently; people want to reconnect with this long history. It’s been rewarding to be a part of that.
Gourd art starts with growing, drying, and washing. I mention this because as gourds dry in the winter, the skin becomes moldy—they look pretty nasty in the spring. First-time growers sometimes mistakenly think their gourds have rotted, and they throw them away. One can also purchase gourds already dried and cleaned.
For pierced projects, I start with a gourd that has a shell that is dense but not too thick. I use tiny drill bits (the smallest is1/32 in.). I use LED bulbs for all luminaires, except nightlights. Night-lights use a standard 5-W clear incandescent C7 bulb, as I’ve yet to find a good LED bulb for these. Finding the right bulb for the globes and pendants took a bit of research. Each little drilled hole projects an image of the filament, pinhole camera style, onto nearby surfaces. Frosted bulbs don’t project light onto the wall as nicely, and LEDs with wire-type filaments project a harsh linear pattern. I’ve found some 5-W LEDs with clear bulbs, 2700K, that work nicely.
Workshop participants start with a gourd that is already stained, waxed, and fitted for hardware—all that’s needed are the holes. I show examples and give a lesson on using the drills (small rotary tools with different sized bits). I don’t provide templates; attendees are encouraged to come with ideas for their designs, which they can draw on the gourd with oil pastel. Glass beads can be used if desired. When groups come to make night lights, there’s invariably a party in the bathroom (the only dark room in the building), as people gather to admire each other’s creations.
Several years ago, we grew a variety [of gourd] called “100 Plus Bushel.” We allowed just two fruits to set on this vine; one grew to 124 pounds, and the other was 140 pounds. They were beautiful, symmetrical gourds, and they dried well. They were so big…too big for floor lamps. What would I do with them? Along came a woman who had recently purchased a large house in Ithaca, NY. She wanted a gourd chandelier in her front hallway. As we considered design ideas, I showed her the big gourd lamp in our cupola. It turned out that she also had a cupola, which clearly needed a gourd light. So, those two sister gourds both ended up as chandeliers in the same home. We enjoy seeing her house all aglow with gourd lamps when we’re in town for an evening.
1 Xuebo Zhao et. al, “Genomic and pangenomic analyses provide insights into the population history and genomic diversification of bottle gourd,” New Phytologist, Mar. 19, 2024.
