Third step - burned drawing is further detailed with stippling, shading, contouring, textures.
Whether burning the design or planning on painting a gourd, each starts with careful cleaning. The epidermis or skin is soaked and scraped off. The gourd's natural shape determines where it will be sawed open, and then the inside is cleaned out. Removing the dry membrane and seeds is followed by wire brushing and sanding the inside. Cleaning both the outer and inner surfaces is messy and labor intensive taking hours per gourd, depending its shape and size. The gourd is shaped or carved with handle for baskets, or cut-out sections. All my gourds have a couple of coats of dark paint added to the interior to seal the surface. If the gourd is to have lacing or weaving, the drilling is done before proceeding to the artwork.
1. Pick a stained glass pattern that will translate well to the curves of a gourd. "The Koi Pond" is my own design inspired by research on a number of stained glass websites.. Most stained glass patterns are designed for flat panels so you will have to make amendments to accommodate the three dimensional aspects of your gourd.
2. Draw the pattern on with pencil. Make your adjustments to the design during this step. Keep in mind that in real stained glass – pattern pieces need to have bridges or connections. To make your stained glass gourd look realistic, connect all the individual segments and keep shapes simple.
3. Go over all the pencil lines with an old dull Sharpie pen. Use blue, gray or something that stands out against gourd tan – but not black. Sharpen up your design and isolate each “glass” island.
4. Paint inside each and every individual section - varying the paint colors (like mottled glass). When using acrylics - blend them on the paint tray or directly on the gourd. You can also use water color pencils. Scribble in the pencil and lightly go over the sections with a damp paint brush. Some segments (acrylics or pencil) are thinned out with water to simulate the translucent quality of glass. No one section is exactly like the next. It’s not necessary to stay perfectly within the lines but make sure all of the gourd is covered. No voids. This may seem tedious and time consuming but it’s worth it in the end. Painting “The Koi Pond” (pictured above) took about 20 hrs.
5. When all the paint is really dry - use a new, fresh, black Sharpie to redraw all the glass separation lines. Keep all your division lines a uniform width like the spaces between glass. I also use some fine archival permanent pens to get the edges sharp. Inking "The Koi Pond" took another 5 hours approximately.
6. Spray thoroughly with wood fixative like Deft to set the inks so they won't run. Spray from about 12 inches away from the gourd. Use several very light coats of fixative letting it dry between coats. A heavy coat WILL cause the inks to run. Take your time to preserve all the careful work you have done.
7. When you satisfied that the inks are set with the fixative you can then apply several coats of polyurethane or non-yellowing spar varnish with a very soft brush. Allow to thoroughly dry between coats.
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