If you’re like me, you can never see a gourd without a snatch of verse flickering in and out of focus in the recesses of your mind – this one:
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never ceaseKeats, from To Autumn
Now even the bees have been forced to admit that Autumn is a memory, and nights are longer, a great way to give a gourd new life is to turn it into a winter nightlight.
The ones pictured here are part of Thompson Farms of Raleigh, Mississippi’s collection of crafted gourd novelties that include tree decorations, mandalas, baskets and thunder gourds as well as luminaries.
As I was admiring them, noticing my accent, a member of the team pointed out one finished with gold and jewels that was fit for a Queen. I had to agree.
Not all the gourds are large and imposing – there really is something for everyone. These fruit-sized ones have their own style of beauty, with their softly burnished shells and subtle textures.
My sweetheart? He came home with a small, black gourd bat to add to his collection.
For more information, check out Thompson Farms on Facebook
Susan Rushton 
I have never collected a gourd, but those top ones are very beautiful.
The patterns have a magical effect seen together.
My sister loves doing gourd artwork. She especially loves all the prior scraping that has to be done. She says it’s a type of therapy for her and gives her a feel of the structure and ideas of what to make it into. Her favs right now are gnome homes and birdhouses. The tornado that came through here in July 2018 took or trashed all of them we had in our yard (boo hoo) but she has been growing and stocking up to give it another go. Thank you for sharing some great ideas. (Had to share with her of course – maybe a little “push” on my part – hee hee.)