Too close to the fire

"Why did they not evacuate?"

The last time hordes of people tried to leave Houston all at once some of them died on the road. For whatever reason, some didn't leave Houston. Instead of judgment, we need to offer empathy, compassion, and help. My daughter, Christie Marie Underwood,  has an answer for all those who comment, "Why did they not evacuate?"

She wrote:
Have you never danced too close to the fire?
Have you ever lost the hand you were holding?
Have you ever spoken words you wish you could retract?
We all have, least we not have a pulse or maybe not a heart.

Nicky Blakeney, Gourd Artist, 5

NICKY BLAKENEY AND THE DREAM BUCKET

 When Nicky read my novel, The Dream Bucket, she found the ideas presented in it an inspiration for bringing happiness and hope into life. She decorated two gourds about The Dream Bucket,  and she wrote a poem about it:

The Dream Bucket

 I have a beautiful dream.

 I keep it in my Dream Bucket

 With my pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

I feed my bucket every day, 

Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. and 

Sometime I add a buck or two to help it grow much faster.

Someday when my Bucket is full, 

My dream will come to be, 

Because I saved my pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters

To make that dream come true!

Nicky Blakeney

Here's the gourd with the poem on it:

And here is the first gourd she designed about The Dream Bucket:

Nicky Blakeney, Gourd Artist, 4

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 AND 16, 2017
SMITH COUNTY AG COMPLEX, RALEIGH, MS
Classes on both days, plus early-bird
classes on Thursday afternoon, September 14

NOTE: Find Nicky Blakeney on Facebook.

OUR GOURDS AND PINECONE FLOWERS

When Nicky placed the photo of the gourd on the right in this picture, I was blown away. I didn’t 

know  she was a talented artist who could create beautiful objects. I wanted that one. My memory tells me that the one on the right was not for sale. Then I saw the one on the left in the picture. I liked it too.

I decided I would need one of her gourd bowls or baskets to go in our living room. John, my husband, had other ideas about what our gourd bowl should look like. He gave me precise instructions for me to pass on to Nicky, who designed a bowl exactly to fit his specifications. It is interesting, quite beautiful He wanted something more primitive looking. 

The point is that Nicky, who is always cheerful, will create  whatever her customers request. Here is our bowl made especially for us by Nicky.

John wanted black oak leaves drawn on a brown background to give the appearance of leather. Around the top Nicky made a row of holes and laced thread that was various shades of tan and brown.

Underneath the bowl she wrote: For Mary Lou Gregg C. Cooke, March 2016, Nicky Blakeney, Proverbs 3:5-6. 

Both John and I were delighted with the results.

Meanwhile, I told Christie, my daughter, about the gourds. "I want one," she said. "Tell her to make me one with a fleur de lis. on it. Here is the one Nicky made. 

So many times, I'm just wrong about what people are going to like. Although I thought it was beautiful, I was afraid Christie would think it had too many designs on it. Nicky told me, "I did get carried away."

I asked her to make a simple one. Here is Nicky's second design:

I fussed over whether these gourds could be shipped. Since I needed to go to Laurel and visit my sister and then go to Taylorsville to discuss Travelers in Painted Wagons on Cohay Creek with Sarah Walker Gorrell, I met Nicky for lunch. John, Sarah, her friend Mike, Nicky, and I met at the Huddle House. When we started to leave, we found ourselves in a flood. We managed to load the gourds.

After I came back home, Christie surprised me. "Mama, I love the gourd you selected, but I like the other one too."  She has both of them. Nicky, Christie, and I learned that the gourds can be shipped successfully.

A few weeks later, Christie asked  Nicky to make her a Holstein gourd with flowers. Since Christie works with Holstein calves, her office is decorated with pictures and little statues of calves. Here is the vase that Nicky made. It is one of my favorites. (Nicky shipped  it.)

Nicky Blakeney, Gourd Artist, 3

Note: Throughout this blog entry pictures of twisted handle baskets are shown.

What do you want to do with gourds, in the future, that you haven’t done before?

I want to finish my first Gourd Luminary first. I hope to learn to make Thunder drums. And I will take time to learn to carve gourds well. I hope! After those things.  The things I want to learn just pile up in my mind.

Is there anything other than the pleasure you get from decorating gourds that keeps you working at it?  

Yes, I don’t often talk about it, though most people that know me know about it. I have Parkinson’s disease. So decorating gourds is my therapy as well as my pleasure. My Dr. tells me that decorating gourds helps keep my mind alive.  I must say here my Awesome GOD has been so good to me. Though I can’t do many of the things I have done before I can still get up in the morning, I can still talk, with good sense, most of the time!  I know my children, Grandchildren and my great grandchildren and I know he walks with me everyday

Now back to the Mississippi Gourd Festival, tell us what we need to know If we want to go to the festival.

The Festival is always the third weekend of September This year on Friday the 15th and Saturday the 16^th. We set up on Thursday. There are “early bird” classes on Thursday Afternoon. The doors are only open for those taking classes at that time. Classes are listed at mississippigourd society.org. see festival 2017/

The doors officially open Friday at 8 AM   and will be open until 5 PM. And on Saturday 8 AM until 5 PM.

If there are classes with fewer students than planned for you may sign up for that class at the festival. You must be there when the class starts.

Nicky Blakeney, Gourd Artist, 2

Other than the Festival are there means or places to learn different techniques?  

Yes, there are probably hundreds of books written by many authors about different ways to decorate gourds. I also belong to several of the many web sites on computer that are learning tools where members teach each other how they do a certain thing, what is the best way to do it, where to find what you need to do it and tips on how to use something made for another purpose to help do what you are trying to do with little cost.  Gourd Artist are for the most part willing to help a fellow gourd head.

What is The Gourd Festival about?

Several things. There will be vendors from MS and states as far away as the Carolinas, Florida, Arizona, Louisiana. They will be selling anything to do with gourds. From raw gourds (gourds that they have grown, dried, and cleaned) to gourds made into things that you have to be told are made of gourds, musical instruments, tools to do the work, paints, Ink, ink dies, leather dies, embellishments, and of course decorated gourds for any season or no season.

Then there are the classes for those interested in learning to decorate gourds but I must warn you It is addictive! You can find a list of classes at mississippigourdsociety.org under 2017 classes. there are demonstrations to show you How they did that.

What are some of your favorites of the things you have made?

Gourd Bowl with Flowers Made of Pine Cones

The First Antebellum Doll  I Made of Gourds

Lady in Blue

Nicky Blakeney, Gourd Artist, 1

Nicky Blakeney visits the Collard Patch

Eighth Annual Mississippi Gourd Festival 

FRIDAY AND SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 AND 16, 2017
SMITH COUNTY AG COMPLEX, RALEIGH, MS
Classes on both days, plus early-bird
classes on Thursday afternoon, September 14

 Nicky Blakeney is a someone I’ve admired since my childhood. She is a little younger than my older sister, and I knew her sister Jeanne in 4-H Club. In our golden years, Nicky and I have become reacquainted. We’ve discovered our mutual love for things artistic, and we’ve also discovered we are distant cousins two different ways. (Many people in and from Taylorsville, Mississippi are related.)

She is an amazing artist. Most of her work is gourd craftsmanship; also she designs flowers from pine cones.  Recently she visited the Collard Patch and gave me an interview. (It will be necessary to divide it into small increments.) I’ll share what she said and some pictures of her gourds.

Nicky is excited about the Mississippi Gourd Festival 2017, which is the eighth annual Gourd Festival.

INTERVIEW:

How did you get into decorating gourds?

I first learned about decorating gourds from my Friends and neighbors, Mike and Michelle Thompson. I had watched them decorate gourds for several years. Then in June 2010 the opportunity came to start the Mississippi Gourd Festival in Raleigh, MS in our home county of Smith.  Mike and Michelle were asked to get it started.  It would replace a show the third weekend in September that had been canceled.

Smith County had the perfect place for it, The County Ag complex. It is indoors, air conditioned, with restrooms and a kitchen, Each year some group, club or origination provides food on site.

Three months after it was first mentioned the doors were opened for the first Mississippi Gourd Festival.

I have been a crafter most of my life but until that weekend I had never thought about decorating a gourd.  I took classes that weekend. At least three.  I can’t even remember now how many.

 The first class I took, we made a Santa Claus.  

(‘that is where I learned how to put paint on the brush.) I finished him in class, brought him home and over the next 6 months I took the paint off and redid it so many times I often said he had had more face lifts than any Hollywood celebrity.

That weekend I joined the MS Gourd Society and the American Gourd Society and have been hooked ever since.

What keeps you interested in decorating gourds? Every gourd is a new experience. Even if I am doing the same thing on a gourd that I did on the one before. Gourds are shaped differently by nature. And what I do must be done for that gourd, and every gourd is “one of a kind”.

What is your favorite decorating medium? Pyrography, which is wood burning. I first learned about wood burning as a teenager, many years ago and had had the desire to learn how to do it since then. I guess one of the reasons I like it is the fact that I can see the results almost instantly.

 I have learned what “Pyrography” is in the last eight years. 

Gourd Bowl with Gourd and Pine-Cone Flowers

How do you decide what to do with a certain gourd? Different ways. Sometimes I have an Idea and look for a gourd to fit it. Or I see a gourd and a picture pops in my mind. Then there are those that I have on hand and they set there for months or even years before they “speak to me”! Those are usually the special ones.