Bonnie Gibson devotes the first quarter of her book, Gourds: Southwest Gourd Techniques & Projects from Simple to Sophisticated, to providing a general overview of the tools most commonly used in crafting gourds; such as cleaning tools, woodburners, and carvers. It also covers materials that crafters typically use to decorate and embellish their gourd art, e.g., polishes and other finishes, paints, dyes, and clays.
The remainder of the Bonnie Gibson book is devoted to presenting a large variety of techniques most commonly used by gourd artists, as well as her own special tips and suggestions in a series of projects, each clearly presented and well photographed.
The projects that Bonnie Gibson includes range from sponge painting a gourd to create a look of pottery decorated with petroglyphs; creating a Gourd Drum Necklace; mask making; a Native Rattle; instruction for creating a traditional coiled basketry weave; applying gold leaf; the use of inlay; and incorporating multiple techniques in a single project, such as utilizing woodburning and carving in combination, to create and decorate bowls and lidded containers for example. Gourds: Southwest Gourd Techniques & Projects from Simple to Sophisticated, is a comprehensive 'general purpose' gourd crafting book that covers a wide range of techniques, materials, and styles.
There are, however, no specific product or supplier recommendations, no indication of her personal preferences as a professional whatsoever, nor even a general overview of specific products or suppliers preferred by artisans working with gourds. The omission leaves the book unnecessarily less useful to the beginner. This is not an uncommon author-publisher choice. On the plus side, Turtle Feathers will be happy to make product recommendations:))
160 pages. Hardcover.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4027-2522-7
ISBN-10: 1-4027-2522-1
