Rattled!

I've been in love with rattles for eons!  I think part of the love affair has to do with my sensitivity to sounds and loving those that make me feel good.  A rattle can do that.  I found myself attracted to ceramic rattles when I'd be at street fairs and had to hold and shake each one.  I visited one artist's booth for several years, caressing and shaking the rattles before giving in and buying one. (I'm embarrassed to say that I can't remember the artist's name!)  It's a ceramic rabbit with a beautiful, subtle coloring and lots of surface carving to give it a personality.

My second rattle is a ceramic heart that is done in raku, with the magical colors of an oil slick in a puddle on a rainy day.

These lovely little rattles just nestle in the palm of your hand as if they were always meant to live there!

So...combining my addiction to gourds with my love of beading, it was just natural that I'd make a rattle using gourds.  I created my "Awakening the Rainbow" rattle from a gourd on which I drew woodburned designs.  The handle is a curvy branch, and then I proceeded to bead forever to cover a lot of the handle and unify it with the gourd.  I put feathers on for the finishing touch, and voila! the rattle was finished.

Here, you can see the detail on the gourd...

I was most pleased with this rattle, especially because it sounds good as well as looks and feels good.

So I couldn't stop at just one rainbow rattle...I had to create another.  This time instead of beading around the handle, I used rainbow yarn with a beaded fringe.  This added movement to  the delightful sound of the rattle.

Here's a closeup of the gourd detail...I used a Crown of Thorns gourd that looks like an amazing flower opening up...

OK - I think that's enough of rattles for now...more to come in the next post!

Stay tuned,

Deborah