Gourd Crafts for the First Timer

Decorating gourds is everybody's favorite craft, as you'll see from the more than two-dozen varied projects shown here. A handy guide tells you where to find, buy, and prepare gourds, and how to decorate them with leather-dye, egg-dye, paint, shoe polish, decoupage, airbrushing, waxed linen, dyed raffia, and beads. Select your projects: storage containers, ladles made from dipper gourds, bowls, musical instruments (such as thumb pianos, harps, and drums, masks, jewelry, piggy banks, birdhouses, toys, candleholders, and luminaries.