Diana Boyle

I have always been aware of gourds and one day a few years back, I was curious as to whether or not I could grow a good gourd in the northeast. I have a hot sunny yard here in New Hampshire, so I thought it might be worth a try.  Well it was, who would have thought I could grow such lovely gourds with our short growing season?  Okay,  now that I have gourds, what do I do with them? I scrubbed and dried and had several beautiful organic object, and now what?  Experiment!!  I’ve always have experimented with arts and crafts, and work in more than one medium, so I began learning new techniques, combining them with techniques already known.  I don’t want to cover gourds in paint. I want to retain their tactile, organic quality.  So pyrography and leather dyes seemed the way to go.  Now I include watercolors, stains and alcohol ink and am developing a new technique to use on ornaments.  Using polymer clay is an interesting juxtaposition and handmade paper seems natural. I plan to use fused glass in the future.  I also have discovered the fun of combining different gourd pieces together to make teapots, containers and even jewelry.  Whimsey reared its head and along came fairy houses and figures. I have worked with textiles, knitting and crochet, quilting, fused glass, polymer clay, handmade paper, doll making and probably a few things I’ve forgotten about.  My work resides in private collections around the world and across the US.  I also have consecutively won Best in Category and Best in Show prizes at the Brunswick (ME) Outdoor Art Festival, was nominated for the Martha Steward Made in America Contest in 2013, and was featured in a segment on NH Chronicle. 

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