Goddess Rattles

For those of you who love rattles and gourds, I'll share more of my special rattles.  Delving into my rather huge stash of gourds, I discovered a bag I'd forgotten about.  In the bag were a couple of dozen small gourds, about 4" long and quite curvaceous.  I decided that these gourds were small goddesses, waiting to be born.

So of course I decided to make rattles!  I couldn't just stop at one...

Can you tell that I was having fun??  I had to try out all kinds of things with these rattles.  Again, I beaded around the handles to unify the handles with the gourds.  It was a difficult decision to paint the gourds, as their surfaces were quite lovely with the natural markings that form during the drying process.  However, I really liked the results...

These rattles have beads on the end of the gourds and little trinkets dangling from the handles.  I'm particularly in love with the rattles that have the woodburned designs.  This is one of my very favorite ways to decorate gourds.  Take a look...

So now that I'm overrun with rattles, I'll probably sell some of them...that will leave room to make more rattles--imagine that!

Still happily rattled,

Deborah