22 projects; 55 decorative techniques; 300 inspirational designs.

Jim Widess and Ginger Summit, the best-selling authors of The Complete Book of Gourd Craft and Making Gourd Instruments, have done it again: they’ve produced another winner to delight the many crafters who work with gourds. Large, lavish, and astonishingly comprehensive, this breathtaking volume introduces every tool and every technique associated with gourd carving, offers fabulous projects that advance in difficulty, and presents a gallery of works designed to inspire. See how to choose and prepare a gourd, impress the surface with a design, and work with green gourds. The magnificent methods of decorative carving covered include fretwork, engraving, chip carving, carving with gouges, relief carving, inlay, and deep relief or sculptural carving. Throughout, color photographs of exquisite carved gourds present crafts styles from countries around the world. A Selection of the Crafters Choice Book Club.

A guide to gourd pyrography--using heat to create works of gourd art--that discusses gourd prep and work basics, provides step-by-step instructions for several designs and techniques, and presents secrets from fifty artists.

Contains twenty easy projects using gourds to create candleholders, a birdhouse, drinking cups, bracelets, and bowls.

"If you're an artist looking to explore a versatile medium or are interested in making dolls, look to nature's bounty. Learn a variety of classic techniques as you create projects. Comes with a gallery of inspiring work by talented artists."--adapted from back cover.

New in Paper With a simple gourd, it's easy to make an astonishing variety of bowls, boxes, baskets, pitchers, and dippers, as well as musical instruments and toys. Choose from the many inviting shapes, from the kettle to the canteen, the bushel basket to the snake. Carve, burn, wax, varnish, and color them with paints, dyes, oils, and markers to work their smooth, three-dimensional surfaces. Basic, time-tested techniques for making practical works of art show you how to grow, dry, and clean them, or where to buy gourds readymade for projects such as a child's elephant pull toy, planters, lamps, and birdhouses. "[A] collection of uncomplicated, step-by-step projects for...large gourds, which are fun to work with and readily available...a good selection."--Library Journal

Provides step-by-step instructions for making, decorating, and playing more than sixty string, wind, and percussion instruments made from gourds, along with numerous color photos and cultural information on the instruments' places of origin.