Here is a great little article on gourd art the you can apply to gourd birdhouses. The video gives some great tips on painting your bird house gourds.

Look at some of these unique designs:

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If you’ve never heard of it, gourd art is the practice of creating works of art on dried gourd shells. This art is based on a technique called pointillism. It’s a very interesting and creative type of work and I’ve have the fortunate experience of meeting a gourd artist.

In gourd art, the surface of the gourd may be burned, sanded, carved, dyed or polished to create a different look as well as to be able to paint and otherwise decorate the gourd. If you don’t want to prepare them yourself, you can purchase those that are already cleaned, smoothed and prepared for creating fine art gourds.

This is similar to or a type of pyrography. Pyrography is the art of decorating wood or other materials with burn marks. These burn marks are done intentionally with a hot object such as a poker. You may have also heard of it called pokerwork or wood burning.

When it comes to decorating gourds, there is no end to what can be created. There are as many types of artists as there are types of gourds and what they do with this craft is astounding. Gourd art is no longer considered just a craft but an actual art form that is featured in museums across the world.

In addition to the actual art and design that is made on the gourd itself, people are also stretching their imaginations and doing many other great things with gourd art. For example, they are making bird houses, bird feeders and many other creative things from gourds.

The best part about of using gourds for art is that anyone can do it. Even if you didn’t know what a gourd was before this, you can decorate your own special creation.

Author: Lisa A Mason

Lisa Mason is a freelance writer with a specialty in Internet content and SEO articles. She has written thousands of articles, hundreds of ebooks and thousands of website pages and related content. She has also authored her own books and works as a consultant to other writers, Internet marketers and Internet businesses.

Lisa Mason, Professional wordsmith for hire: gamer, wife, mother, entrepreneur, published poet, co-owner of game guides company, public speaker and Internet business consultant. You can learn more or follow Lisa’s blog from her website: http://www.freelancewriter4hire.com. You can see more articles like this at: http://giftsanddecor.wordpress.com/

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Can Art be Taught?

Birdhouses, unbelievable birdhouses, macabre dolls hanging dead from trees, gourd art with faces wearing hats of tin and dangling glass earrings, tacky popsicle stick lamps, painted chairs, tables, benches that defied explanation. 

Rossville Lady Is Award-Winning Gourd Artist

Birdhouses were the first of her gourd creations, and she branched out from there. "I never held a paintbrush until 2000," Delaina said. She thought she might like gourd art, so in 1995 she grew her first gourds.

Gourd Birdhouse Art – Making Gourd …

Would you like to enjoy the enchantment of birds in your backyard? Then why not make them a gourd-geous birdhouse? Working with hard-shell gourds is an ancient art that is becoming increasingly popular as a contemporary art form.

Preparing A Birdhouse Gourd

I’m going to keep trying, though, because I want to do gourd art and birdhouses. Helen. Reply dar, on June 4th, 2009 at 3:08 pm Said: awesome …we have these out at the camp and have purple martins everywhere

Vegetable Art Starts With A Gourd Idea

“I had grown some birdhouse gourds, so I had this box of nasty-looking gourds taking up space in my shed,” Hosch recalled. “Faced with the option of either tossing them out or doing something fun with them, I chose the latter.

10 Things to do with a Gourd

Gourd pyrography is the art of creating burned designs on the outside of a gourd. Provided the gourd is dry the shell can be scarred with burning or pa fef inted with food dyes or ochre paints. These can be turned into objet d’arts to adorn.

Birdhouse Gourd Art

Birdhouse Gourd Art. Look what you can do with the Bottle Gourds! I found these on Flickr, and asked the artist if I could post some of her creations on my blog, and she, sure. Thanks Hope. I am so in love with the Flamingo.

The Art Of Woodburning

I love the idea of using birdhouse gourds to woodburn on. I planted them last year, and I have oodles of them in the basement just waiting for something to be done with them. Maybe I will give my dad a few of those to get creative with!

Gourd Art: Paint An Autumn Bowl

Dried gourds are often used for birdhouse. Today we are going to focus on making bowls. Both are great and can be given as gifts for the holidays. Once dry they are very durable and accept paint and shellac easily.

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Gourd Bird Houses: A Step-by-step Guide To Making The Best Gourd Bird House

Many bird houses are available on the market today. In fact, no matter what design you think of, there probably is one already on sale right now. However, the best bird houses are still those that are made at home.

There are several materials you can use to construct your own homemade bird house. Some people use wood or metal, but the easiest to construct is made of gourd. Gourds are hard-skinned fleshy fruits that are related to cucumbers and squash, but they are not edible.

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Like the squash, gourds are abundant during Halloween season, which is from mid-October to early November. These fruits are commonly used as hollowed-out bowls or cups or other dried home decors such as organic bird houses.

Gourd bird houses are very simple to create. Even small children are capable of making these homes for birds. If you are new to making gourd bird houses, just follow these simple steps and you will soon have your own gourd bird house.

1. Select a gourd. Gourds come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Choose the right size for the species of bird that you want to house. Typically, the larger the gourd, the better bird house it will make.

2. Upon choosing your gourd, cut out a hole from the side. It is important to do this when the gourd has not dried up yet. This hole will serve as the entryway of your gourd bird house.

3. Carefully take out the fleshy part of the gourd. This process requires a lot of concentration. Make sure you do not puncture the walls of the gourd. You may find it helpful to use some tools for carving out your gourd. The best equipment to use for this would be your regular scissors, tweezers, or even small spoons.

4. If you want to add a roost, gently carve out a smaller hole under the entryway, and insert a stick or branch through this hole. If you have a hard time creating a hole, you can slit short perpendicular lines instead, resembling a cross, and you can also push your stick or branch through this opening. Either method will work just as well.

5. Let your gourd bird house dry up. Once dry, you can put it up anywhere in your garden and soon, you will be rewarded by the sight of birds landing and resting on your new gourd bird house.

By: David Faulkner

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You can also find more info on Bird Houses and Wren House Plans. Thisbirdhouse.com is a comprehensive resource to know about Bird House Crafts, Kits and Plans.

How To Make Gourd Birdhouses

Both adults and children will enjoy this project. Fun easy project to do.

The Simple Process In Constructing Gourd Bird House

You will need certain equipments and tools to construct gourd bird house. You will require such tools, like a power drill, and eye screw.

Gourd Bird Houses

One of the more popular types of decorative birdhouses is a gourd bird house. Instead of looking like a human house, they look more like the real natural habitat of the birds.

Make a Gourd Bird House

Make your own ghostly project with just a gourd and some paint. Simple yet scary! Building birdhouses is one of those classic things to do with your hands.

Martin Gourds And Gourd Bird Houses

The Native Americans quickly learned that hanging more gourds meant fewer flying insects. Purple Martins started to rely on the artificial bird houses provided by humans today.

Gourd Bird Houses – How to Make a Gourd Birdhouse

This is to give way for the wire that will be used to hang the bird house. Being closer to the birds is not a difficult task. Again, you only need the gourd at hand and some handy skills. Build a gourd bird house and the birds will come.

Organic Natural Gourd Bird Feeder

A natural way to feed your favorite birds. It’s large enough to allow several birds to dine together but small enough to keep out the larger birds.

Gourd Bird Houses

There are lots of styles of birdhouses to choose from so it is all up to your choice. There are birdhouses that look like real houses, there are gourd bird houses and more.

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Bird houses can be a great way to attract birds to your yard and if you want a unique natural look, the gourd bird houses may be the way to go. The first thing that comes into mind when it comes to creating bird houses is to find the perfect gourd. This can surely help in saving effort and money.

Gourds can be easily found or grown in the garden. Gourds are distinctly identified by their eye-catching colors and markings. They can even be said to resemble alien forms. This happens especially during the late summer and they can be very entertaining to the eyes.

Gourds will normally be something that have to be intentionally grown. To grow one, certain steps have to be taken and regular tending must be done. Apply fertilizer in the soil where you plan to plant the gourd. For a plant grown in the space of the garden, a half dozen seeds should be placed. Then follow properly the directions in the seed packet. Thereafter, the plant should be regularly watered and the fertilizer reapplied every month. For creating bird houses, a large gourd has to be cultivated. This type normally takes 130 days to mature.

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Turning the Gourd into a Bird House

Once you have the right gourd at hand, it can be easily crafted to make a good bird house that you can put in your yard or garden space to attract the birds.

Working with the gourd is relatively easy. It is just like working with the wood. However, doing so will require some tasks to be fulfilled. These steps are necessary to make a bird house successfully out of the gourd.

1. Put hot water with soap in a pail. Get the gourds and soak them. When at least 30 minutes have passed, take out the gourd and clean it.

2. Cleaning the gourd will require the use of a scrub. Do this until the gourd is entirely clean. Just take into account the possibility of discolorations in the gourd. This will not normally take off so do not fret over the stains.

Dry the gourds after cleaning.

3. Select the dried gourds that have the right length for your bird house. a diameter of 8 to 14 inches will be proper enough.

4. Make sure that the walls of the gourds are properly measured so as to make it most comfortable for the birds. It should be at least quarter of an inch thick so as not to make the bird house too warm.

5. Next detail to work on is the hole for the birds to enter. Most of the gourd bird houses are created for martin birds. A hole of two and a half inch are normally sufficient for the martins to enter into.

Drill a hole also at the bottom of the cage for the drainage system.

6. Clean out the insides of the gourd. Scrape out the seeds inside. You can also pour water inside to make sure that the dusts created by drilling are removed.

7. Preserving the gourd is also necessary. Purchase copper sulfate from hardware shops and follow the instructions on how to prepare the mixture. Soak the gourd in the preparation for 15 minutes and let it dry.

Make sure your hands are properly protected with gloves in preparing the mixture.

8. Paint the exteriors of the gourd house. White house paint is normally used to make the bird house to easily attract the birds. Just ensure that no drain holes are left unclogged.

9. Then, make a hole on the top neck of the gourd. This is to give way for the wire that will be used to hang the bird house.

Being closer to the birds is not a difficult task. Again, you only need the gourd at hand and some handy skills. Build a gourd bird house and the birds will come to you.

Author: Lee Dobbins

Lee Dobbins writes for http://birdhouses.garden-g8way.com where you can learn more about bird houses and find out about more about gourd bird houses.

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Gourd Bird Houses- A Step-By-Step Guide To Making The Best Gourd

Gourd bird houses are very simple to create. Even small children are capable of making these homes for birds. If you are new to making gourd bird houses, just follow these simple steps and you will soon have your own gourd bird house.

Gourd Bird Houses – How to Make a Gourd Birdhouse

This is to give way for the wire that will be used to hang the bird house. Being closer to the birds is not a difficult task. Again, you only need the gourd at hand and some handy skills. Build a gourd bird house and the birds will come.

Natural Organic Gourd Birdhouse for Wrens And Chickadees

Don’t tell the Chickadees at my house about that myth!! They DO use hanging birdhouses. The birdhouse is 11" long from tip of the stem to bottom. The circumference is 18.5" at the widest part of the gourd.

Organic Natural Gourd Birdhouse

All gourd birdhouses and bird feeders are one of a kind. They cannot be duplicated. Mother earth is the designer of all these beauties.

Organic Natural Wren Gourd Birdhouse

Spring has sprung!! The birds are returning and we must have birdhouses ready for them.This is a wonderful little apple gourd that any Wren will be pleased to see.

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