Gourdy Gourd Gourd

I'd like to pause my World Card Making Day Celebration, well, in a different way.  Today was actually a pretty crafty day.  I have had many chances but kept passing them up with a lot of excuses.  But finally I attended my first gourd art class conducted by Julie Sitzema, Lady Gourdiva of Pilliwiggins Garden.  I have always loved Pilliwiggins gourds, since seeing them for the first time at the Royal Craft Show in Castle Farms.  I have several of them in fact, beautifully nestled in our dining area.  

The class was divided into three sections - the first part being the history of gourd art.  This is followed by the different steps in making gourd art, from growing and prepping, to the crafty side of it all and finishing.  The last part was giving the attendees a chance to play with little gourds.

A few years ago, Julie sent me small gourds to play with.  But since I haven't used gourds before, I got "scared" of even trying.  After attending Julie's class, I now have a better understanding of gourds and the right way to handle them. 

It was a treat to see the Lady Gourdiva's creations.  And what's more, she brought extra gourds in the raw for us to take home and do the entire process again by ourselves.

I started drawing a design on my little gourd during the class.  Then I took it home to try and test different media on the gourd.  So far so good, but I'm not yet done.  You can see here that my gourd is waiting to dry. 

I can't wait to finish my first gourd project.  I hope it won't take long for me to do so.  But for now, I'm really glad that I attended this class.  It sure was inspiring!

For more information about anything gourd, visit the Pillywiggins Garden Website.  And if you live in Northern Michigan, you can have a chance to see (and own) beautiful gourd art by the Lady Gourdiva herself at the 5th Annual Winter Fantasy Art Show in Petoskey, MI on December 14th. 

'Til next blog!

Crafter Focus: Pillywiggins Garden

Hello crafty friends! 

Through the years, I have met a good number of awesome crafters, mostly from the craft shows I go to - both as a customer and a vendor.  I thought that this blog would also be great to feature them as well.

And for my first Crafter Focus, I'm presenting to you Pillywiggins Garden by Jason and Julie Sitzema of Central Lake, MI:

Love gourds?  It was love at first sight for me when I first saw Jason and Julie Sitzema's awesome and funky gourds at the annual Royal Craft Show in Castle Farms (Charlevoix, MI) in 2009. 

I totally remember that first encounter with their gourds, and I just wished I have all the money in the world to buy the ones that I liked.  Of course, I can only afford to buy one, so this was my first gourd from Pillywiggins Garden:

The following year, I got this one:

And on the same year in another craft show, I got my first snow man gourd.  It had a special spot in our Christmas tree that year.

During this year's Royal Craft Show, I went and visited Pillywiggins Garden again to check out their latest gourds.  Due to budget constraints, I wasn't able to add to my gourd collection but definitely there's a good bunch of them that I really liked.  I hope that they will still be available in the next craft show.  During the visit, my DSIL asked how they got the name "Pillywiggins Garden".  Because my eyes were busy looking at the gourds and taking photos, the only thing I grasped was the name came from a children's book.  I wouldn't have known.

So here are a couple pics of the gourd artists Jason and Julie and their booth at the Royal Craft Show:

 

The Royal Craft Show at Castle Farms (Charlevoix MI) is not over yet... there is still tomorrow, September 4th! So if you're from Northern Michigan, you might want to check them out.

I am looking forward to take one of Julie's gourding classes, and that's one thing I'm really excited about.
 

For the meantime, do visit the Pilliwiggins Garden's website at http://www.pillywigginsgarden.com/, and check out more of Jason and Julie's awesome gourds.  If you like the Pillywiggins Facebook Page, you'll get first hand updates about their craft shows and maybe get a chance to see their gourds in person.  Definitely a must see!

'Til next blog!

Last Day of Freedom

My last weekend before going back to work was pretty busy.  First, I went to the Labor Day Tent Sale at Arnie's Craft Store, and I did get some really really good deals.  After this event, I made a promise to just go to Arnie's tent sales, which takes place about 2-4 times a year, instead of going there on regular days.  While driving towards Arnie's, I chanced upon a Labor Day craft show a few blocks away.  Of course, I had to stop and see what's going on.  There was only one vendor that caught my eye.  He creates 3D woodwork of some sort.  I fell in love with his work, I wanted to buy one of each of his many designs.  I ended up buying the pine trees and maple leaves.  I hope to catch him again in the same craft show next year.

 

 

Saturday night was dishwashing night - for 6 hours till 2:30 am.  DH said I can go to the Castle Farms Royal Craft Show if I'm able to finish all the dishes.  And I did!  So come next day, with my Starbucks Mocha Frapuccino in hand, I drove to Castle Farms.  I found a lot of good vendors there like Garden Leaves Concrete Creations (no website), Farmbrook Designs, Northern Rock LLC and Kandu Krafts. 

But after making a couple of rounds looking through each wonderful items, I ended up buying gourd art by Pillywiggins Garden.  All their work is beautiful, and I wanted to buy a lot, which is not possible of course.

I also bought a big wooden cardinal bird for our front yard.  I'd love to have that especially during my favorite girls' varsity basketball season.  Another vendor was selling hair combs.  She was demonstrating how to use it, and I got leary at first.  But after a few tries, I was able to do it.  So I decided to get one. 

Speaking of craft shows, I just posted photos from the Sawdust Art Festival in Laguna Beach, CA.  That was one of the highlights of my California trip.  It's all in here.  
 
Now time to relax....