Gourd Class

The first weekend in February (Friday, 2/5) I went to Casa Grand to the Running of the Gourds Festival which is sponsored by Wuertz Farms, where the gourds are grown. It is always so much fun to attend. The festival is held at the Pinal county fairgrounds. They have one huge building where pieces done by members of the Arizona Gourd Society can be viewed. There is a second huge building that has vendors selling every tool you can think of, every type of addition you could want for your gourds and finished gourds themselves. Outside there are huge bins of gourds which have been grown by Wuertz and dried and are available for purchase. There are classes that you can sign up for if you register early enough. And, like any fair, there are the food vendors and the entertainment, which sounded like an island group from my outdoor classroom seat.
This year I did not spend enough time at the fair because, after signing up for two classes, which took the entire day, there was no time to shop or see the displays or anything else but class. And though the fair went from Friday to Sunday, I was booked with other activities on the remaining days. That was a bit disappointing but I will remember that for next year. And, since I had bought gourds a couple of months earlier and grown some of my own gourds in my garden, I was all set in the fresh gourd department.
As I mentioned, I took two classes. The first one was one wood burning. She showed us some techniques and basically had us try out the tips on our burners. It was OK but not really worth the four hours or the price of this class. Also, the piece that I took home with was nothing more than a practice gourd - nothing worth putting somewhere to show. I did discover, however, that if I want to get serious about burning gourds I am going to need to trade in my $20 burner from Michael's for one of the $250+ models which have much more heat, variable power, multiple pens and exchangeable tips.
The second class was a great class and worth the price and time. It was a class on a painting technique where you do part of the painting with melted crayons.
This technique requires a specific heating well to melt the crayons which will get them to a temperature that will not overheat the medium and cause it to separate into color and wax but also be hot enough to be able to get the melted crayons to spread before to is too cold to be smooth. The picture above is the result of my class and, although not a perfect piece, is a nearly finished piece that I can put a finishing coat on and put on display.
The day was an enjoyable one.