Sunday, July 15, 2012

CGS Raffle Gourd

As part of the "Baskets and Gourds: Containers of our Culture" conference in April, the California Gourd Society gave each local patch a large gourd with which to make a basket to fill with little decorated gourds.  These baskets were to be raffled off for a fundraiser.  I made the basket for the San Fernando Valley Patch.  We all agreed that the gourd had a womanly shape, so here's what I came up with:

I wanted to keep the design simple in the interest of time.  Her arms are separate cut-outs attached with wire.  I used some scrap fabric to cover the connection and add some trim to her dress.  A couple spare buttons finished her look.  For her hair, I used brown yarn which I tied into bundles.  I lined up the ties to give her hair a natural-looking part.  The basket was filled with small gourds decorated in all sorts of styles by the other members of the San Fernando Valley Patch.  You can see some of them displayed in front of the basket in this photo.  I'm happy with the way it turned out.   I hope whoever won it is happy with it, as well.