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.