I'm Diane Ricker and I am a Gourder. Not a Hoarder, although my husband might tell you I'm a gourd Hoarder. I began gourding in the late 80's when I found a bottle gourd on my little granny's back porch. I painted a little face on her and sewed a little dress with an elastic neck and stitched flesh colored fabric hands right into the dress. My granny adored her, and Gourdinia was born!
I was heavy into craft shows at this time as I was putting 2 kids through private high school. I noticed a lot of painters were doing the same patterns on wood shapes and realized if I was going to stand out I would need to be unique. Since most of my craft shows were in the fall, the gourds just cried out to be pumpkin jack o' Lanterns. My sales increased. Gourd pumpkins led to gourd turkeys, to gourd Santas, and I could see the possibilities were endless. Around 2005 I discovered the Atlanta gourd patch and realized there was a whole group of crazy gourd people like me. Then I was told there was an American Gourd Society, there were more crazies all around the country, just like me. I'm fortunate to live in the State of Georgia that has a sanctioned gourd competition once a year. In 2006 I entered a pen and ink design and received a Blue Ribbon. I have advanced to the level of Master Gourder. Could life get any better? I look upon my gourds as my new canvas and able to have dimension by painting in the round. I still do my craft shows in the Atlanta area, just not as many as I'm aging. I teach at APC in Alabama in June and now I will bring my love of gourding to you in Oklahoma. I've been painting over 65 years and let's all have a Gourd day.
dmricker@bellsouth.net
