Crazy Gourd Bird

This bird was created from multiple home grown gourds.

An interesting collection of gourds

Hot glue

Dremel cutting tool

Wood dowel if needed

Acrylic paint

Paint brushes

Coat hanger (wire)

Paper clay (optional)

Scrap cloth

White Glue

Drill

Pliers

This is the fun part deciding what gourds to use. Some gourds can be cut so you just use a part of the gourds. The top notch is cut from the same gourd I used to make the wings. The wings are cut from the side of the gourd using a Dremel cutting tool.

Gluing the pieces together is when the bird starts to take on it's personality. You can use pieces of wood dowel to hold some of the gourds together. In this case, the legs are made stronger by using the dowel. A drill can be used to make holes for the dowels. Wire coat hangers were used to form the feet. Another small hole was drilled at the base of the legs and the wire slipped into that hole and glued.

Long strips of scrap cloth material were covered with white glue and wrapped around the wire feet. Once the material is dry you can add some paper clay to give the feet more shape.

This is where you can go crazy. Acrylic paint works great. Try different techniques to create feathers and different textures. Once you are done painting you may want to coat it with a matte varnish.