Painting gourds for Halloween is a family tradition at my house. They make great decorations, great gifts and lend themselves to great indoor or outdoor displays. Good preparation of the gourds and sealing against the elements are the key to success.
The gourds normally remain on the vine until the vine is quite brown and dead. Then they are cut from the vine and hung to dry in a cool dry place, like a barn, until dry and brown. When gourds dry they have a tendency to become moldy. This is quite normal. If you buy gourds you will normally get them with the mold on them, but you can pay more and get them already cleaned. Your gourd is ready when it is quite hard, moldy and the seeds rattle when you shake it. It should be hard as wood, which it is, and very light when dry.
If you buy a cleaned gourd skip the following instructions.
Take your gourd and soak it in warm water with a little bleach in the water for about an hour. It should be totally submerged. Now take a metal pot scrubber and rub off all the mold and a layer of skin on the outside. It takes a bit of elbow grease. Underneath should be more of a golden wood looking surface. Once all the skin is off and all the mold, let your gourd dry.
When the gourd is dry and clean it is ready to paint. I use water based acrylics for my artwork. The image with this section shows a Halloween witch gourd that I did for this Halloween. It is a good idea to paint the entire gourd white as a base coat then paint over it, gives you an even painting surface with no bleed through. You can search the web for Halloween ideas, feel free to steal mine.
Once your satisfied with your image, and you have given it plenty of time to dry, seal it with polyurethane. You can get it in a spray or brush on. This will protect your artwork from handling and the weather. You can display it indoors or outside once it is sealed and dry.
Be imaginative. Ghosts, Witches, Pumpkins, etc… make what ever your heart desires. Add felt hats, hot glue super sculpty ears or horns to your gourd before painting. You can add pumpkin seeds hot glued for teeth. The important thing is to have fun and have a spooky gourd filled All Hallows Eve.
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