@@sandytroxel7823 thank you! The natural areas are always tricky. For this I used a water based polyurethane from Maria Dellos. www.mariasartcreations.com/
@@BethKaneArt thank you, I definitely will look that up. I just used another brand of polyurethane varnish and my carved areas turned yellow. Very disappointed.
@@sandytroxel7823 I am so sorry to hear this. There will always be a bit of yellowing but one way to minimize that is to dab the finish on with a makeup sponge in order to assure that only the minimum necessary to protect the area is applied. 2 coats of Maria’s, applied like that, is the least yellowing method I can suggest. You could also use an acrylic paint that matches the flesh. I have done that & been very pleasantly surprised at the results.
Hi, I wanted to let know I contacted Maria today. She said unfortunately she is no longer offering the polyurethane finish as she can no longer get it. Thank you again for your beautiful works.
@@sandytroxel7823 oh no… that is a shame! Ugh. I have a gourd that I experimented with, using different finishes in different patches to see which was best. I will grab that & share the results with you probably by the end of next week… My daughter’s wedding is this weekend so I have my hands full now, but I have put it on my list! In the meantime, I recommend joining the Facebook Group “Gourd Art Talk”. It is very helpful! You can post your questions or even search for a topic that has already been discussed (I brought up your same question last year).
Hi Beth. Your videos are awesome. Could you tell me what tool you are using to cut with. I also design with gourds, and when I add color, I use shoe dye.
Hi Cheryl, thanks so much! I started out using a dremel with a flex shaft. It worked well, but I do prefer the master carver micro-pro, which is what I use now, pretty much exclusively. Same idea as the dremel, but it is a bit easier to control with fine detail work. Here is the link: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B088KVH8DL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Shoe dye is a great option! Thanks so much for your interest 🙂
All of the gourds I use are hard shell gourds. I mostly use kettle, bottle & cannonball varieties. I do not grow my own, so I cannot recommend a seed supplier but a quick internet search should give you plenty of options.
I watch loads art of on yt. I love it when something randomly turns up my feed and it's a new skill i didn't know. It's a beautiful piece. Keep it up. 👏👏👏
Thank you for your interest. My videos are not intended as tutorials. I make them so that the customers who buy my pieces can get a peak into my studio & see the “before / middle/ after” of the process for the sculpture that they bought or received as a gift. If others enjoy them too, that’s a bonus. Sometimes I am too involved in my work to manage the video process & sometimes the clips I take aren’t clear enough to include. Every moment of work is certainly not portrayed.
Thank you so much! Yes, absolutely - a dust collector is essential! While I use a variety of techniques & mediums, my go-to is alcohol ink. I also use a but of acrylic in spots where alcohol ink would bleed or become absorbed too much for the desired effect. So glad to have you as a subscriber- thank you! 😊
@@BethKaneArt Thanks Beth for your quick reply! May I ask what type of dust collector you use? I live in an apartment and I don't know anything about these machines except that I need one!
Thanks again, Beth! I've been watching some more of your videos and I love your style and creations! You are truly talented and willing to share as well. I'll continue watching....
@@BethKaneArt Wow super , je suis abonné à ton site et tu fais un Super beau travail, je suis un '' wood turner'' j'aime beaucoup ton Art. Continu tu fais un travail extraordinaire.
I looked at your site , all beautiful works for sure . But I noticed one thing when you were carving this piece . You waited until your carving was completed , before you added color . Which I thought was odd 🤔 given the danger of accidentally having color getting onto the deeply carved areas , where you want to keep the natural color of the gourd light skin . My hand isn’t steady enough , to risk trying to add color ,and stain ! after such carving .i was wondering if you’ve tried coloring the gourd ,before any carving ??? Great work 👍
Thank you for your thoughtful response. The order of operations is always a question for internal debate as I work on each gourd. Factors to consider are the properties & vulnerability of adjacent areas (as you stated), method of application (in the case of a mosaic effect the “grout” must be applied & wiped off), compatibility of protective finishes on each area, and the visibility & erasability of guidelines (e.g, if I ink the surface I can no longer draw / remove pencil marks that guide carving / burning). While I try to minimize the two steps forward, one step back process of the work (creating & removing marks), the gourd tango is a part of the mixed technique nature of my work. The order of operations I choose for each gourd is a risk assessment decision unique to each piece.
A real WOW factor. I clicked on the picture thinking it was wood or glass work. I never thought about gourds as an art medium. Very beautiful and also nice video.
I have been binging on your videos...I am enthralled...however, I keep forgetting to click on "Like". I do, so very much, but as a Luddite, I forget the demands of technology. Some entity, somewhere, somehow reads data and decides if you are worthy or not of their support. You are!!! Thank you for the time and effort you put into filming and editing your process. So amazing!
