There's Burning, Then There's BURNING!

I'm so happy to report my box of goodies showed up early yesterday.  I unpacked everything, but didn't begin work until after lunch.  I just couldn't quite fathom sitting outside in 40 degree feels-like-27 weather.

I set up my table and the carver, ready to make some magical artistic piece worth pennies.  Let me just say it's a lot harder than it looks.  It takes only seconds in their video to cut the top off.  As you can see, I did NOT do a bang up job.  I also did NOT cut my arm off!!  YAY!!!

All the videos run in fast forward mode, making you think the cutting goes fairly quickly.  I'm here to tell you it does not.  In fact, it goes in slower than slow motion.  They also forgot to mention that the spin of the drill keeps you moving to the right, right off the lines, making for a sloppy cut.

Nor did they mention the burning.  Smoke was coming out like I was sending signals to the Indian tribe across the valley.  Another thing, have you ever smelled burning gourds?  Oh my goodness it's awful!!    

Forty minutes later, the top finally came off with a huge puff of smoke.  I was sure the insides were on fire, so I quickly dumped them out in the driveway.  What a mess THAT was.  There IS a wire brush for cleaning the insides, but alas, I didn't order one.  I used a sharp rock from the driveway, like the Indians did.

Finally, it was time for the REAL burn.  This is stick and burn.  It comes with patterns already imprinted.  How cool is that??  You stick them on, then trace around them with your burner.  This also is a  S  L  O  W  process.  More smoke wafted into the air.  If I thought cutting would provide the worst smell, I was wrong.  

Burning turned out to be the same slow motion work.  If you're in a hurry to create a masterpiece, this hobby is not for you.  I think it took 20 minutes to burn this fish pattern.  Not bad though, at least it came out better than my cut.  I really didn't have any fish colors, so I winged it.

Turn it around and VOILA!!!  ART!!!   The good news is that painting with dye is super easy.  You can easily paint in the lines since the burning causes a ditch keeping the dye away from the rest of the gourd.

It's not quite done yet.  I'm going to add some more stuff around the sides and try to figure out how to fix the top.  One thing I definitely need is a wire brush cleaning tool for the bit I'm using.  Maybe a bit with a bigger bite would help too.  

In the meantime, I'm going to watch the two videos that came with the setup over and over until it's ingrained in my little brain.  I'd watch some YouTube or other videos on-line, but I've used up my allowance for this month.  

I think I'm going to have lots of fun with this!!  Now if I can only get that burned gourd smell OUT of my nose.