Good gourd!
Jane Wilson and Gloria Richardson will show their “Quilts and Basket Gourds in Brilliant Color” as the featured artists at the Fiber Arts Studio Gallery in Lincoln City from Friday, April 2, through Sunday, June 13.
“Gourds offer the opportunity for me to coil, twine, carve and wood burn” Wilson said. “I also use paints, stains and inks, often on the same piece, in the creation of my original gourd art.”
Wilson first saw gourds used as an art medium at a Kansas art walk in 2007. A gourd artist won best of show and the use of color and wood burning intrigued Wilson, who realized she could use her woodcarving techniques on gourds, too.
Coiling, a basket weaving technique, adds intense color in designs. Wilson developed a technique of dyeing cord to match the colors used on the gourd. In her pieces, coiling with the dyed cord complements the flow of the cord as part of the design.
Hard-shelled gourds are strong, durable, lightweight and water resistant. They also require no complex manufacturing process, are nontoxic and in the end, environmentally friendly and biodegradable. Gourd bowls were found in archaeological sites in Peru and Thailand dating from 6,000 to 11,000 BCE.
Wilson was raised in Southeast Kansas with an enthusiasm for arts and crafts starting with sewing projects in 4-H as a child to oil painting as a young adult. Currently living near Portland, she is a member of the Columbia Basin Basket Guild and Portland Handweavers’ Guild. She teaches classes and shows her work regionally.
Richardson studied oil painting in Europe as a young adult and fine-tuned her technique in college in California as her children grew up. She has expressed her creative spirit through oil paint, acrylics, watercolor and stained glass, but especially fabric. Richardson believes the desire to show the beauty of the world is inherent in her DNA and she embraces an ever-growing variety of media and techniques.
“Whenever I see something beautiful, cute or quirky, I have an irresistible urge to reproduce it so I can share the experience with everyone else,” she said. “I see thread work as a major part of the textile art experience and, for me, one of the most freeing parts of the process. I feel like a child at play with my paint box, imagination and my threads — always my threads,”
After many years of traditional quilting, Richardson found her creative spirit comes alive with raw edge appliqué. She uses strong contrasting colors that jump off the fabric; no pastels in her palette. Hand dyeing gives her color control, and the addition of ink and paint helps complete the complex look that was envisioned. Once the basic design is appliquéd, she is free to thread paint, embellish and quilt for texture and bling.
Richardson is a member of Gone to Pieces Quilt Guild and High Fiber Diet and owns Morning Glory Quilting in Yamhill County. Fiber art is her passion as she continues her exploration of creativity through thread and textural design.
“My ongoing theme is always ‘embracing the common thread’ with my work,” she said. “Whether it is patchwork quilts or abstract fiber art.”
The Fiber Arts Studio Gallery is inside the Lincoln City Cultural Center at 540 NE Hwy. 101, open from 10 am to 4 pm, Thursday through Sunday. For more information, call 541 342-1973.