Jennie Moss said the couple began growing and decorating gourds about 20 years ago.
“We stopped to get some produce at a gourd growers,” Jennie said. She added that she admired the decorated gourds on the shelves. “I bought a couple of little gourds to try carving and wood burning on.”
She’s decorated hundreds of gourds in all shapes and sizes. Her husband grows hundreds of gourds annually in a 35-by-22 foot greenhouse on their property.
Jennie said before she became interested in gourd decorating, she enjoyed oil painting on canvas. The gourds, with imperfections and unique shapes, offer a bigger challenge.
She remembers decorating the first gourd. At the time, she had few tools. To wood burn, she uses a wood burning tool that belonged to her son. To carve, she used a fingernail file. But that experience was enough to pique her interest.
“I just kept trying different (gourds),” she said.
Jennie often uses kettle and bushel gourds that are about 12 inches tall. She begins by drawing nature scenes or American Indian themes on the vegetable. Then she carves and paints them. Lately, she’s also been decorating miniature gourds that can be displayed in wall boxes.
Throughout the years, Jennie has taken a few gourd decorating classes, but most of her craft has been learned through trial and error.
Because her husband grows the gourds, she has large supply. Tim began growing gourds after Jennie began decorating them.
Gourds come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from miniatures that may be a few inches tall, to the dipper gourds that can be four feet long or longer. Gourds grown this year will dry during the winter. In the late spring, Tim will usually wash them and prepare them for decorating. He sells the ones his wife doesn’t decorate.
Jennie’s gourds have won several honors, including Best of Show at the Ohio State Fair. However, she realized a few years into her hobby that she was running out of space for the finished gourds.
“Then you figure you don’t have room to keep all of them and start selling them,” she said.
For years, the couple sold their wares at shows throughout the area. This year, they plan to do much of their selling at the Ohio Gourd Show.
Do you know of someone who should be featured in Hereabouts? Send an e-mail to Beth Sears at sears@erinet.com or call her at (937) 448-0101.
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