Maverick Style: Inspired by the West

Highlighting the Gourd's Natural Beauty

Brenda Dewald is talented artisan I had the pleasure of meeting at the Western Design Conference in September. She attended the show with three artist friends, creating a booth filled with beautiful fine art and crafts. I have an affinity for fine art gourds, and was immediately impressed with Brenda's work. I knew I needed to feature her fabulous gourds on Maverick Style!

Native Oklahoman Brenda Dewald has been an artist for over thirty years, beginning her career as an oil painter. She is an avid fiber artist with an emphasis on hand stitching and quality quilt design. Now she enjoys combining her areas of expertise in the creation of fine art gourds. She begins by hand selecting, sculpting, and cleaning premium gourds. She uses ink dyes to bring the natural beauty of each gourd to the surface. She then spends countless hours stitching and coiling pine needles and other natural elements to each gourd, resulting in one of a kind art sculpture pieces.

Brenda has the ability to make the most of each gourd's inherent beauty. The Black Walnut Wonder Gourd (left) is a unique hand dyed Kettle Gourd incorporating pine needles and natural brown sinew in a wheat stitch with natural walnut shells. It is stunning! The Volcano Gourd (center) is about as close to perfectly symetrical as a gourd can grow. For this reason Brenda chose to highlight the surface using a bright red ink dye and a high gloss varnish. The heavy black sinew is hand stitched to the rim using a wheat stitch. I love the vibrant red color of this elegant piece! The Cracked Gourd (right) is an unusual gourd that has cracks on both sides of it. Brenda could not bear to throw it out, so she decided to highlight the cracks as part of the art piece. It is one of my favorites!

Visit the Brenda Dewald Fine Arts website to see more of Brenda's beautiful gourds, and to find out where they can be purchased.