Had a great time at the Hallson's gathering!

[boops]

Ut-oh I can see I'll have to rip out more Ivy for more room for your new plants next year.

[ladyblue]

Thanks Chris and Brian for a great day!
It was wonderful seeing everyone. Mike you are such a great photographer,thanks for the pictures!
It was so much fun making the fairy house,thanks Brian for the help.
Bonnie

[jgh]

color me green with envy... so sad we couldn't join in the fun!!

[boops]

If I may ask, what is a Fairy House?

[morgansrgr8]

Chris posted a couple pics on another thread of a fairy house. They looked really cute. Here's the link for them.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=55730&p=484646&hili ... se#p484646

[boops]

Oh-they are adorable-is it made from a real gutted gourd?

[Chris_W]

Hi Boops, They are gourds that are decorated Here are some pictures of the crafters having fun last Saturday!

[Chris_W]

And some more pictures They all looked great, and everyone who was able to stay for these had a lot of fun. Sorry that we got a late start on it though, but Brian and I were really busy in the nursery that day too or more would have had time to participate if we had started earliler.

[Chris_W]

And who took home Brian's swan gourd? He donated this to the raffle though I think he really wanted to keep it

[boops]

They are the cutest things, love the swan! I'm going to try one myself. What type of paint is on the swan? I have a gourd bird house, but I bought it already decorated. Thanks for the pics!

[thy]

The Swan is beautiful... Brian have a good artistic eye

[Chris_W]

Brian did like that little swan He just used acrylic craft paint on it, and used a sponge brush so that the brush strokes looked kind of like feathers. He has to find another gourd that looks like that to do another one

[jgh]

We have a bird gourd - complex carving from Peru. I think if you get the right kind of seeds you can grow lots of them... of course, there is a gourd website, complete with identification charts...

http://www.thegourdreserve.com/

still haven't heard who went home with Brian's cute creation...

[boops]

I found a place that ships cleaned, dried gourds. Shipping a bit high though.

http://www.storesonline.com/site/1278922/page/441664

[Eleven]

jgh, LucyGoose took the swan home. She tried getting Brian to autograph it, but I'm not sure if he ever did.

[Chris_W]

These are bottle gourds, which are light and hollow. Would people really be interested in purchasing some of these do you think? We have a lot of them, and they are so light I don't think shipping would really cost that much. Let me know if you are interested, boops, and I'll check the shipping rates for you

[boops]

Yes I would be interested in them, I love the look of the finished product, the fairy houses and the swan. The other place charges almost $10.00 to ship one.

[morgansrgr8]

They aren't heavy just awkward to ship. I grew alot of gourds last year but none of them turned out the way I wanted them to. I like making Giraffe birdhouses out of them. I made the mistake of growing them on a trellis. It straightened out their necks to they dont have the graceful giraffe look. These are the Swan gourds. After growing then you have to dry them out and you cant paint them till the next year.

[Patrushka]

Yes, LucyGoose took Brian's swan home and she did get him to sign his artwork.