I really like dried gourds.

Cynthia and I found a booth at the farmer’s market in Chincoteague that was selling them 3 for $5.   So we bought 6!   I sanded them down and put a maple stain on them and buffed them up a bit.  Except for those warty ones in the back- I’m going to spray paint them silver or gold for the holidays.

But the big ones have the seeds dried out in the middle of them- so they rattle  when you shake them.  The one in front is a really good shaker, and I decided to do something special with that one and give it to Aidan as a noisemaker/rhythm instrument.

But I wanted it to be cute for him to hold-

so I painted a cat on it.  We saw a whole bunch of cat gourds at the Herb fair last weekend- but they all looked like scary Halloween cats.  And I didn’t want one of those cats –  I wanted it to look happy when he shakes it silly!

I drew up what looked like a kind of happy cat.

And painted it on the gourd with acrylics.

He doesn’t look quite as happy as he did on paper.

  But  I really like his tiny little body and paws with claws.  I think I’m going to paint the rest of the gourd a solid color for better contrast and then braid some dyed raffia into his “tail’ and give him a raffia bow around his skinny little neck.

I know it is not a really great cat- I’m not really even a good folk artist.  But then again, Aidan isn’t an art critic either.

And I think he will like it.