It’s quite fun watching people’s reactions when we tell them we grew our lamp base and hanging light cover in the front garden! Inspired by some clever gourd bowls, vases and birdhouses we’d seen before, we experimented with some function gourd art and are really pleased with how they turned out.

So the story of our lamp base and light cover began with a seed....that turned into a vine that grew the gourds....then the vine died back and we harvested the gourds, leaving a good piece of stem on, and dried them in a well ventilated rack out the back deck....then after a few months when they were full dried (very lightweight and the seeds inside shook like a rattle) we cut the holes required in the base and top, scrubbed them inside and outside with vinegar and water and dried them in a sun for a couple days again.