Petroglyph Bowl

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The bowl was made about 5 years ago and combines a gourd with pine-needle basketry.

There's a remote early-man site in the Mojave Desert about 35 miles from here with ancient petroglyphs adorning the rock walls of a short narrow canyon. We spent a lot of time there when the kids were younger and I took close-up photos of most of the symbols.

I copied the petroglyph designs as closely as possible onto the gourd with a large red indelible marker and then colored the rest of the gourd blue, also with indelible marker. Then I hand-rubbed the bowl to wear away some of the indelible ink which gave the bowl a sort of weathered batik-like patina. After the pine-needles were stitched on, the entire bowl was finished with a coat of beeswax.

For the baskets & bowls I usually stay with earthy tones, but I had some turquoise colored hemp twine and wanted to experiment with color. I like the way it came out and I may make a couple more Petroglyph Bowls in different colors, but the above photo doesn't really do this one justice (see the photo I added below).

The Petroglyph Bowl was given to our friend Bob Varga in appreciation for the 30,000 pound boulder birdbath he brought us.

And with this more current work I think I'll bring my little art retrospective to a close, I want to go out and play. But it's been fun going through this old stuff and sharing it with you.

If I ever get a slide scanner for the computer you guys are in real trouble, I've got about 2,000 old slides from my photography days packed away in closets.

Have a good Sunday everybody...