Many of you may know Angie from her blog Gods Growing Garden. Angie has been creating her gourd creations for 17 years and has sold her whimsical works of art at local craft shows. She opened a website and an etsy shop to find a wider audience and customers for her fun creations.

Angie this is such a unique art form. Please share how you became interested in creating artful gourds.

One year I grew gourds in my garden (about 15 years ago now) and the obsession started.  I saw them sitting in my garden and thought “What could I do with these gourds?” – and the ideas started flowing  & haven’t stopped.  Everything in my store is either created from a gourd or my jewelry called “Garden Gems” are resin protected pictures that I took of my garden or of my gourds.The first thing that I made from gourds was “The Gourdons of Gourdonville” © which are houses made of gourds & the roof comes off – inside I’ve created a room filled with furniture made from leaves & twigs and the bugs that live inside I made from Fimo clay.  My husband & I wrote a children’s book about “The Gourdons of Gourdonville” © but it has yet to be published. I might have to self-publish the book someday.

I enjoy seeing a smile spread across someone’s face when they look at one of my creations & I equally enjoy the deep down soul satisfaction that I receive just from creating. I was 4 years old when I first started drawing  I’m in my 40’s now. But, I still can remember sitting at the dining room table at the age of 4 drawing .  Creating is my favorite thing – whether it is drawing, painting my gourds or mixing up a recipe.

Angie since you are working with gourds from the garden. Do you have an area in the garden where you create too?

I create all over the place – When I am cleaning my gourds (you see – they take a year to dry – they become moldy & icky – then I have to clean & scrub them in soapy bleach water) I am creating & categorizing “this one will be a gourd-o-lantern(Halloween gourd) or this one will be a gourdament (Christmas ornament) etc.  So I create outside, on the kitchen table, in the basement – I don’t have a studio so it’s kind of all over the place.

I like the creative names for your gourds.  Black Cat “Gourd-o-lantern”,. Two Elf Gourdaments (gourd Christmas ornaments) – “Rudy Joy” & “Bo Tinsel”. Rabbit Gourd Belly – for Easter candy,  Wedgewood style Gourd purse  Red Brick Victorian “Gourdons of Gourdonville” .

What do you enjoy doing when you are not creating for your shop?

I’m a Christian blogger and I enjoy writing my Sunday posts probably because I learn so much from my Bible Studies but then I also enjoy  (if you look at my blog you’ll know) – cooking, baking & gardening. I fear that growing & preserving our food and making things from scratch is becoming a lost art – I hope that my blog is a place to go to learn how to do these things yourself.

It has been a pleasure shining the spotlight on your shop today Angie. Where else can we find you?

Facebook ,Twitter , Bloglovin,Pinterest ,Google+

I hope you are enjoying my series shining the spotlight on independent artists.

If you have a shop you would like in the spotlight please contact me regarding the details.

See you at the Thursday Favorite Things hop!

Enter to win a little Christmas cash to spend at one of the wonderful shops I have spotlighted