Stained glass and hard gourds

John Ingall grew his own gourds and set about transforming them

While touring Mississippi John Ingall and his wife, Jane, spotted the hardshell gourd, a plump, squash-like fruit with a thick, woody skin. They saw them almost everywhere across the state: carved gourds, hanging gourds, as lanterns and bird boxes.

On returning to their farm in Warwickshire, Ingall “planted a few among the tomatoes in a polytunnel”. In no time, the vines had grown to 6ft tall and later some enormous fruit growing.

“I have had some 4ft long. Some have long thin necks; some are bulbous; some are pear-shaped; some hourglass. You just don’t know what you’re going to get,” said Mr Ingall.

“When they are drying out in winter, all the pulp from inside evaporates through the skin,” he says. “They look mouldy. People see them and think they’re rotting. In spring, you scrape all that off – and you are left with the gourd shell.”

Ingall started by making lanterns, and now incorporates stained glass into the shells. He also creates what are known as thunder gourds: “Fix a drum skin to it, and when you shake it, it makes a sound like thunder. People come to our open studio, see a gourd hanging and don’t know what it is. Then I shake it – and jaws drop.”

The full story in The Guardian