by Paula Chaffee Scardamalia
| PROFILE IN SUCCESS |
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From Vine to Validation: Taking Gourd Art to New Heights
by Paula Chaffee Scardamalia |
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 This gourd vessel was woodburned and then colored with oil pastel markers. |
AFTER DISCOVERING GOURD ART 10 YEARS AGO, GINGER SUMMIT BEGAN EXPLORING THE MANY WAYS TO WORK WITH THIS RELATIVELY UNKNOWN MEDIUM. INTRIGUED BY ITS "USER-FRIENDLY" NATURE, SHE WAS HOOKED. WITHIN A FEW YEARS, SHE CO-FOUNDED A GOURD CLUB, SHE BEGAN TEACHING AND PROMOTING GOURD CRAFT AND, REALIZING THE ABSENCE OF GOURD INFORMATION IN THE MARKETPLACE, SHE PUBLISHED A TOP-SELLING GOURD CRAFT BOOK. SINCE THEN, THE GOURD CLUB HAS GROWN TO 100 MEMBERS, AND SUMMIT HAS PUBLISHED THREE OTHER GOURD BOOKS AND A CD OF GOURD-INSTRUMENT MUSIC.
Summit has recently had to take a brief hiatus from her fast-paced career, as she was diagnosed with cancer last summer. Now in the last stages of her treatment, Summit has faced the biggest challenge of her life with the same drive and strong will with which she pursued her craft, and in many, many ways, it is paying off.
SERENDIPITY AT ITS BEST
Summit discovered gourds somewhat accidentally. She had recently retired and was pursuing her interest in weaving. But while viewing a basketry exhibit at Convergence '90, the Handweavers Guild of America's international conference for fiber arts, Summit saw something she didn't recognize. "When I checked to see what the form was made of, I discovered it was a gourd," says the Los Altos, Calif., artist. "Coincidentally, a vendor in the suppliers' exhibition area was selling raw gourds, and I bought some, took them home, and just started playing with them."
Her early explorations became gifts for family and friends. These friends were so impressed with her work that they showed it to local gallery owners who were intrigued by this still relatively unknown medium. A few galleries approached Summit and asked if they could carry her work. Summit says that they were interested in her work particularly because she wasn't doing the most common gourd forms: birdhouses and Santas. Much of her work explores gourds as utilitarian and decorative objects created using different surface embellishments. Summit was soon selling her work through four galleries in California. The response to her work was such that she had more than enough to do just keeping those four galleries supplied with her gourds ... and a few other gourd-related activities.
ONCE A TEACHER, ALWAYS A TEACHER
Although Summit had retired from teaching special education in the public school system, she was still a teacher at heart. Her excitement and love for gourd craft inspired her to share her enjoyment with others. She spoke at garden clubs and women's groups, and gave volunteer presentations and workshops at places like battered women's shelters and women's prisons.
 Ginger Summit with some of her gourd creations. |
FILLING THE NEED FOR ACCESSIBLE GOURD INFORMATION
When Summit began experimenting with gourds, she had gone to the local library looking for books on gourds and gourd craft. She found none. As her teaching and lecturing continued, Summit again was faced with the lack of available information on gourd crafts. "At that time, there were almost no books on gourds. It took a lot of research on my part before I finally found one. But it was published in 1970 and the projects [in it] were really dated, and it was available only from the American Gourd Society," she says.
So Summit got together with gourd aficionado and photographer Jim Widess, and they put together a book proposal and presented it to Lark Books, well-known publisher of craft books. Lark approved the proposal, but gave them a deadline of only six months.
Summit immediately began contacting gourd artists, requesting pictures of their work to use as examples of different ways of working with gourds. Then she began what she calls her "brain dump," writing everything she knew about gourds and gourd art. When the book reached the editing stage, Lark editors informed her there was too much information and that they were going to eliminate several chapters. "That was OK with me because I knew I could make each of those chapters into separate books!"
"The Complete Book of Gourd Crafts" was published in 1996 and is now in its 10th printing, a rare achievement for a craft book. The book explains the basic steps to four types of gourd craft: painting, woodburning, carving and basketry, and includes many examples of each type.
This shorebird gourd was woodburned and polished with shoe polish. |
THE ROOTS OF THE CALABASH CLUB
In the crunch to complete the book in six months, Summit tried to reduce her workload by cutting back on gallery clients, from four to just one. But publishing the book and creating work for the galleries were just two of her activities. She was also a founding member of the Calabash Club, named for one of the larger types of gourds.
The club was started 10 years ago when a group of 10 women with a passion for gourd crafting decided to meet every other month to share their work, ideas and challenges. As interest in gourds grew, so did the club's membership. Today it has more than 100 members meeting in local chapters.
Three years ago, a small group of women within the club, including Summit, decided to exhibit and sell their work at regional craft shows. One of their members had experience with this market and provided her input and organizational skills to the group's efforts. She had them put together a portfolio of their work to submit for jurying. "Even though most shows jury in with a limited number of slides, we submitted our entire portfolio in order to represent the broad spectrum of work and artists," says Summit. "We would receive phone calls from the organizers [saying] that they don't normally allow that, but that since our work was so good and so unique, they would make an exception. The result is that our group now exhibits and sells at 10 shows a year in California, most within a day's drive."
Each member of this group, who sells under their silk-screened banner labeled "Calabash Club," contributed time and resources to help create a portable display, and agreed to share exhibit fees, spend two hours booth sitting for each show, and help with setup and take-down.
"Each gourd artist has a 'tear tag' on her work so that when her piece is sold, the tag is torn off. When the show is over, the tags are added up, and the artist is paid her portion of sales. It puts less pressure on each of us to produce large amounts of work, and the public loves it. Customers come into the booth and mention how it feels like a museum because of the broad range of quality gourd work."
THE PRICING CHALLENGE
Pricing gourd craft can sometimes be more challenging than the craft itself, says Summit. "Costs are minimal for materials. The expensive thing is the time involved," she explains. She believes you need to keep your customer in mind, look at what the market will support, compare your work to others in the field, and decide on the minimum price you will accept. As the popularity of gourds has increased, so has the opportunity to demand a good price for the work.
FOR MORE INFORMATION |
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Ginger Summit The American Gourd Society The Caning Shop The Gourd Garden (and Curiosity Shop) Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) |
PLANTING THE SEEDS FOR NEW BOOKS
After the success of her first book, Summit found herself answering the same question over and over to new gourd crafters. "Can I plant these seeds and grow more gourds?" She decided to answer the question once and for all by writing a second book about growing gourds.
Since this was not an idea that fit in Lark's topic list, she decided to self-publish the book. But first she did her research. She bought the self-publisher's "bible," Dan Poynter's "The Self-Publishing Manual: How to Write, Print, and Sell Your Own Book." She "followed that book step by step," she says, "doing each thing it advised. Writing was the easy part, everything else was difficult!"
The book, "Gourds in Your Garden: A Guidebook for the Home Gardener," was released in February 1998 and has sold 10,000 copies. Not content to rest on her laurels, Summit went on to write another book with Widess, called "Making Gourd Musical Instruments." Published by Sterling Publishing Co. last November, the book is already in its second printing. It shows examples of 60 instruments made from gourds by people of different cultures from around the world, and gives instructions on how to make them. "Then, of course, it occurred to us that it wasn't enough to see the instruments; so we put together a CD with music created on [them]," she says.
While creating the CD, Summit also wrote her fourth book, for Lark's Weekender Crafts Series, titled "Gourd Crafts," which was published in February.
NEW CHALLENGES, NEW PRIORITIES
Summit's burgeoning career is now on hold, however, until the cancer, which has affected her sinus cavities, has been completely treated. "I was advised not to do anything ... that might involve dust or fumes, such as solvents," she explains.
Summit's passion for her craft, her innate ability to share and grow from it, and her ability to meet each new challenge have helped prepare her for her battle with cancer. "As you can imagine, life has been very different for the past year for me," says Summit. "Cancer was definitely not on my calendar! But, it is a blessing, really," she says. "I have had to look at what my priorities are and [to learn] how to say 'no.' "
Though she is not currently producing new work, she had a retrospective show at a gallery in Los Altos Hills earlier this year, and the Calabash Club is selling her books in its booth at the craft shows. She also is teaching at the spring Convergence conference in Cincinnati.
When asked for advice for new gourd artists, Summit stresses, "Have a good time! Don't worry about producing a masterwork. Working with gourds is one of the most flexible crafts. Don't hesitate to do the smaller, lower-priced pieces such as ornaments, necklaces and bowls. As with every other craft, it is a matter of educating the customer. They will buy the small item, and someday they will be back to buy that special one-of-a-kind piece."
Paula Chaffee Scardamalia is a Berne, N.Y.-based freelance writer who teaches and owns her own weaving business, Nettles and Green Threads.
JULY 2000: TABLE OF CONTENTS