August Class - Gourds in Door County

For August, I wanted to go somewhere, and do a class close to my birthday. I had heard of The Clearing Folk School in Door County and found that there was a class close to my birthday. Making Gourds. I wasn’t sure about this one, but I signed up since it would allow me to travel to Door County and try out this school.

I drove my campervan up to Peninsula State Park and camped the night before the class. It happened to be my actual birthday, and as I was setting up camp, a lady and two little girls – around 7 or 8 came by. They had been having a birthday party and had extra cake, so they were offering it to the other campers. Crazy! I told them it was my birthday too, and they were so excited! I got the distinct impression that the girls were not willingly going along with the mom’s decision to talk to other campers, and I overheard her say to the girls something like “See, you just never know when you can bring someone some happiness” – it was kind of cute.

In the morning, I headed over to the Clearing. What a beautiful school! There were 4 others in the class, and we got started on out gourds. The instructor had cleaned all of the goards and cut them open, but we stained them and decorated them. In the morning, we used beads to decorate our gourd, and I had brought along some of my glass beads for accents. After a lunch break, we did a second gourd. This time, she had us edge it with dried leaves.

I was super impressed with all of the creations of the day – the gourds turned out way better than I had imagined they would. I am looking forward to going back to the Clearing, and maybe taking a multi-day class. I think it would be great.

A few of the key take away from the session:

1. Gourd making wasn’t on my radar of classes to take, but the finished product was very impressive!

2. California gourds are thicker than those grown in Wisconsin because of a longer growing period.

3. If you sleep with your windows open at Peninsula State Park, you have to worry about racoons getting in. (This did NOT happen to me, but after the fact, I heard stories about it. I consider myself lucky)