Straight from the Slush Pile ~ Making a Snowman Gourd Finished

I am very excited to introduce to you the first inductee into the "Slushpile Gang."   My newest line of snowmen gourds that will have a characteristic "lean"  from warming temperatures. ;)    These new snow gourds will be a little different from my previous snowmen.  The Slushpile Gang will sport mache feet to help them stand in wintry displays.  They will be the first of my snow gourds to welcome the winter with upcycled clothing... Yep, natural and green!! :)   A few of these little guys and gals will also be proudly displaying some mixed media paintings based on my original sketches.  Yay!

The first to enter this group is a little gourd that I endearingly refer to as "Leaning Lenny".  His big blue pear shaped eyes just melt my heart!  He slouchingly stands approximately 14 1/2 inches tall and hails (no pun intended! LOL)  from a gourd patch in North Carolina.  His carrot nose, mittens, and feet shaped base are all sculpted from mache.  His hat and scarf are all hand sewn from felted sweaters, and color matched to coordinate with his mittens and the scene painted on his belly.  He is one dapper little dude! ;)

This photo shows him sitting on my drafting table and watching me type up his debut on my laptop! LOL  I think it shows his front lean more accurately.  I love the way his eyes appear to be peaking  from under his woolly hat. :) 

How's that for a loving look?!?  LOL

Couldn't resist!!

Lenny sports an original sketch of mine entitled "Santa's Moonlit Ride".  The mixed media scene is created from acrylic paints and pastel chalks and measures 6 x 4 1/2 inches.  

As you can see on Lenny's back, he has a few natural blemishes.  There are gourd artists that prefer to sand their projects smooth, but I like to leave a few of the blemishes to add character/uniqueness and remind the viewer of the beauty of a natural surface.  Also, underneath his felted hat is his long stem.  I had to shape the hat to fit  around the stem and pinned the wide tail back to the band.



This gives a good look at Lenny's mittened arm created out of mache and scarf that is hand pieced from two lengths of felted sweater.  As you can see, his leaning head is more noticeable from the various side pics.



This pic shows a better view of his hat and scarf.  The natural fibers give a cozy, warm feeling to this chilly snow gourd.  

I am creating more free standing painted gourds in different sizes and have some more of the Slushpile Gang in various stages of completion.  Lenny and some of my other creations will be making their way to my Etsy store this week in time for the holiday shopping season.  I will be showing my finished work on Pumpkin Hollow Primitives first, so my blogging friends will have a chance to adopt first. :)