December Seventh

It was the winter wild,

While the Heav'n-born Child,

All meanly wrapped in the rude manger lies;

Nature in awe to him

Had doffed her gaudy trim,

With her great Master so to sympathize;

It was no season then for her

To wanton with the Sun, her lusty paramour.

John Milton

Creative Juices:

Yesterday I started working on my gourds at last.

 
Only a few of the smallest ones are dry. One, I had broken the neck off of months ago, so he seemed a good guinea pig.

 I used a wood stain for the darker areas, and a permanent marker to draw the lines.

 Since the neck was open, I crushed some dry eucalyptus leaves and sprinkled them with essential oils.

 Then I cut a few rosemary sprigs and put them in the opening.

 I'll take it to the market on Saturday and see if any hippie type would like to buy it.
Then I started on a second gourd, this one with an intact neck.

 It had more dark mottling that reminds me of the night sky -- mysterious and beautiful -- and I didn't want to remove it. I did sand, clean, and wipe it. Then I painted it with watercolors (because that's really the only paints I have!) I really didn't think watercolors would work  on a gourd! But it dried ...

 And then I covered it with two layers of polyurethane.

I truly don't know what anyone would do with it, but I think it's cool-looking :) I don't want to obscure the painting with lots of yarn like the first one. Maybe a slender yarn "necklace" that would somehow allow it to be hung? I'll have to think on that.