Merrickville, Ontario. I just stopped by to see Claudette who makes gourds. She's an amazing woman. She makes all sorts of fabulous things, from holes in caved, painted gourds, to woven tops on gourd bodies, to painted ones, to bowl bottoms with much decoration above, woven. She uses clothesline, rolled paper, twine, yarn and anything else to weave up the walls above the gourd. She used a stool disk for a bottom of a basket. She dyes fabric, the gourds, uses pattern paper glued on the sides, painted, waxed afterwards.
She adds things like door hinges to open the doors to the king within, a dragon curling around the top, knights on either side. She makes spring drums hanging upside down from the sock shaped gourd.
It was amazing to visit with her. Everything she touches is fantanstic. She's got her garage as a gourd workshop. A place to sit and work away at her creations. I don't have a place to sit to work at the moment. I'll have to work on that. Oh, my kitchen table perhaps!
She puts grommets in the gourd, sews with imitation rawhide, uses all sorts of materials, paper, metal, buttons, all sorts of things. She has Marianne Barnes' books. I'm glad I went over to meet her. I'm glad I went there and got so inspired. Merrickville is such an inspiring little town. It's just filled with artsy folks. I would retire here if we didn't have our own place already! If I ever had to move to 'town', I would like this one. I'm not sure if there's a grocery store here, though. Tons of gift artsy shops, though, lots like Westport, but better.
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