Birdhouses Made

From Gourds

One of the very first things a new gourd crafter wants to make is a birdhouse made from a gourd.  They can be easy to do while introducing the personality of "gourdiness" to the beginner.  It's a good place to start.   Below I've composed a pictorial library of some of  the various gourd birdhouses I've created over the years.  Some houses are very simple, some are complex and diorama in style ( depicting interior scenes) like the first one below.   Whichever birdhouse you make, use these as inspiration for creating your own designs. I hope you have as much fun as I have had!
	The first birdhouse offered here is one I made for a dear friend out of state.  It's a hybrid birdhouse/diorama mix fashioned out of a hybrid Apache dipper gourd.   Being a diorama, I spent quite a bit of time planning the interior as well as decorating the exterior. The door, as you can see, is hinged, swinging down like a drawbridge.  It latches from the left side. The metal at the apex is merely adornment. The exterior is combined paint of light blue with white.  Over that I layered on lace studded with dozens of white pearlettes.
	Inside the diorama birdhouse is a replica of my friend's garden which I got a guide from a snapshot she sent to me. There are dozens of features. The main feature of the interior scene is a replica of her cat (since passed away) sitting in the favorite wicker chair in the wooden gazebo.  (Note the small, wooden, green and yellow  gourd birdhouse hanging to the rear of the interior portion of the gazebo and the lovely clutch of red "glads" to the right of the chair.)   Note the gazebo behind the chair.  I build the latticework, plank by plank.  The cat was painted by hand.  The gardening hat was adorned with silk, handmade flowers  with ribbons and beads applied to the front.  The wicker chair was store-bought.
	A detail I'm quite happy with - the brads on the gazebo corners. Being that the gazebo was assembled from scratch from basswood, the joints needed to be attached, one to another.  I chose small common pins as my "bolts", cut to fit with a plier cutter, then painted to match.  The corners were, of course, tapered for smooth  angled joining. The sunflowers in background are made of paper with paperclay centers and stemmed with individual leaves.  I never counted how many I made.  There were a lot.
	To left, a small trowel in the right-hand flower bed.  You can see handle sticking up at the right of picture. The garden basket at left is filled with a store-bought wooden watering can replica, a garden claw, small pots and several veggies, including hand-made carrots and hot peppers.  Several assorted flower types here, there, everywhere. The pathway leading to the wicker chair and hat is made of inlaid wooden chips lined with small white pebbles as a path border.