Week 20: Gourd Lights- Part 2

For Week 18, Alan and I picked up some gourds and got to work cleaning them out and designing a pattern.  "We" may not be accurate. Alan is waiting for inspiration.  

I left off with some outlines of flowers, and a plan to come back to it with a bigger drill bit to make holes the right size for beads.

Part 1

Unfortunately, our super-awesome-drill-for-19-lira only comes with one size drill bit, and none of the other manufacturers' bits fit.  Bummer.  So Alan had the great idea to just buy some screws that were the right size and use those as drill bits. Too bad he is TERRIBLE at estimating the right size of screw.  The ones we ended up with made the same size hole as our drill bit.  I was super frustrated at this point, and put the gourd on a time-out in our spare room, with all of my other crafting materials.

Two days later when I went in there to find a t-shirt, I was in a better space. And I saw that little gourd in a whole new light.  Sitting right there next to the gourd were seed beads left over from some jewelery making. And wouldn't you know it? They fit perfectly!  Now I don't even need a new drill bit, I just need to get drilling. 

Seed Beads to the rescue!

So I did!  I drilled the heck out of that little gourd.

  Filling in the flower petals...

 Adding a ton of holes to the top (to cover up an extremely unattractive flower I thought I could free-hand drill)...

And adding some tiny flowers around the bottom. 

Then I contemplated colour. I loved the natural colour of the gourd, but there were some rather nasty blemishes, so I felt like I had to paint it.  I went with a creamy base, and gold accents.  I love it even more now.

Part 3 will involve me filling each and every hole with a bead.  I've started the process, and now know why these lights are so expensive.  Parts 1 and 2 were cake. THIS ONE IS NOT. It involves re-drilling each hole to get the paint and crud out, and then maybe finding out I drilled too much, and re-adding the paint.  Grr.  Also it involves me pushing really hard on itty-bitty glass beads. A million times.  My fingers are not pleased.

  But I have a feeling it will be worth all the pain...