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John Ingall
Website:
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ingalljohn
John Jane Ingall
Autumn Hare
Penguin Thunder Gourds
Biography
I want to bring hard shelled gourds to a wider audience. I grow the gourds here on the farm and once they have dried they make a great medium for art and craft, perfectly eco friendly. In the USA hard shelled gourds are very popular and artists paint and carve them as well as making many things with them from lamps to bird boxes. Their are a few gourd artists in the UK and we’d like more people to try it.
inspiration
My speciality is combining stained glass and hard shelled gourds. I have been making stained glass for about 12years and when I got interested in gourds I wanted to combine the two and the gourds provide a unique organic frame for the stained glass.
I also make Thunder Gourds by attaching a drum skin to the cut off base of the gourd and vibrate it with a spring so that a roll of thunder emanates from the gourd which is acting as a soundbox.
medium
I grow the hard shelled gourds from seed each year in March and then when they start flowering in May the flowers are pollinated by moths at night. The gourds have to grow for 120 days on the vine to form the hard shell which becomes like wood. They then dry out over winter and are ready for use the following summer.
The stained glass is attached to the gourd using the Tiffany method of solder and copper tape.