First Rattle!

Starting my first rattle. I cut off the stem and drilled a hole where it was.

Shook out the seeds and cataloged them. Probably will keep some to plant and use some to trade at the Ecology Center seed exchange program and get some veggie seeds for our garden.
I refilled the gourd with beans, but the sound is muffled and wooden. I will probably try pea gravel instead, soon.

Craft Bowl

While my gourds cure, I am testing out some crafting techniques on my cracked gourds. This is my craft bowl that I craft over while watching TV at night. The bowl holds my materials and tools and catches any mess that might fall.
So far, I cut out and sanded some jewelery pieces for a bracelet. I'm going to stain them, seal them, drill holes in them, and braid them with hemp rope and some glass beads I got on Kauai. Here they are:

Cleaned and Cured!

These are my first two cured and cleaned gourds!

Jill made a centerpiece out of them.The smaller one will probably be a rattle:
Drill a whole where the stem is, get all the seeds out, fill it with beans or beads, epoxy the hole.
The bigger one will probably be a shekere.