I grow my own gourds, harvest and dry them, clean and burn on them. Cut and polyurothane them ready for sale to you.
It is time consuming but rewarding. And as the article says, not without health hazards if you don't mask up and try to protect yourself.
A gourd is a hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants. Gourds can be used as a number of things, including bowls or bottles, stringed instruments and drums. a tool for sipping yerba mate by means of a bombilla, Birdhouses (Lagenaria siceraria),. "Gourd" can also refer to the live fruit before it is dried, or to the entire plant that produces that fruit.
Gourds were the earliest plant species domesticated by humans and were originally used by man as containers or vessels before clay or stone pottery, and is sometimes referred to as "nature's pottery".
The shell of the gourd, when dried, has a wooden appearance. Gourd "wood" is essentially cellulose that has no grain, varying in thickness from paper-thin to well over an inch. Drying gourds, which takes months in some cases, causes the internal contents (seeds and fruit matter) to dry out completely, although seeds are often still capable of germination.
For the uninitiated, cutting open a dried gourd (which can be done with a craft knife or miniature jig-saw) can present hazards; the resulting dust is extremely fine and can cause respiratory problems, requiring adequate protection.
It has also been found that gourd skins were used to replace missing parts of skulls back in the Neolithic times as part of primitive surgery.
Gourds were the earliest plant species domesticated by humans and were originally used by man as containers or vessels before clay or stone pottery, and is sometimes referred to as "nature's pottery".
The shell of the gourd, when dried, has a wooden appearance. Gourd "wood" is essentially cellulose that has no grain, varying in thickness from paper-thin to well over an inch. Drying gourds, which takes months in some cases, causes the internal contents (seeds and fruit matter) to dry out completely, although seeds are often still capable of germination.
For the uninitiated, cutting open a dried gourd (which can be done with a craft knife or miniature jig-saw) can present hazards; the resulting dust is extremely fine and can cause respiratory problems, requiring adequate protection.
It has also been found that gourd skins were used to replace missing parts of skulls back in the Neolithic times as part of primitive surgery.
Create a free website at Webs.com