Gourd Ghost Sculpture

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I began this project 25 years ago. No, that's not true. I finished this project 25 years ago, then, sometime in the past year, the mice in my garage thought it would be great sport to eat my nearly petrified gourds, and I was left with a trunk with wires glued to it, and memories of my old Ghostie friends! Obviously, this project comes with a warning. If you make it... store it in a manner that mice cannot munch!

Materials:
1 awesome and gnarly looking piece of wood
coat hangers or thick wire
wire clippers
hot glue gun
small gourds, dried
white paint
black paint
spray sealer (optional)
drill with drill bit the diameter of your wire
spiders, spider web and cheese cloth
 
Directions:
1] Find a cool piece of wood and cut it to size. (Make sure the bottom cut is level. The piece of wood should be able to stand up without tipping over.) Mine is about 18" high by 12" wide. Downed trees in the woods are great (that's where I got mine), but you could also make a really neat sculpture out of driftwood.

2] Cut up wire to different lengths. The wire needs to be long enough to fit the length of your gourds plus additional length to hold it away from the trunk. This is a "plan as you go" thing. Look at your wood. How many ghosts will it hold? Where do you want to position them? When you've made some of those decisions, drill holes into the wood about 1" deep and at a 45 - 70 degree angle... whatever seems right for your gourds. Slip the wire into the trunk and hot glue in place. (I laugh every time I look at my trunk. This was the first time I used a glue gun, some 25 years ago. A little over kill!)

3] Paint your dried gourds with 2 coats of white paint. (NOTE: In a pinch, you can use fresh gourds, but you will need to poke holes in them to mount them to your sculpture. THEY WILL rot. So you will not be able to save the sculpture.)  

4] Using black paint, add eyes and a mouth. If you would like to give them extra protection, you can spray them with an acrylic sealer.

5] When the gourds have dried, drill a hole in the bottom of the gourd. Use a drill bit the size of the wire. (NOTE: I do not often recommend brands of anything, but I have to sing the praises of my Fiskars Hand Drill. It is definitely up there with my "must have" tools in the craft room. Easy to use, sturdy, and hand powered. It's small and easy to use on small projects. I LOVE IT!!!)


6] Slide the gourds on the wires. If a wire is too long, simply cut off the extra length.

7] Add spider webs, spiders and squares of cheese cloth to give a spooky feeling!

 

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