Heather Kinkade is the president of Desert Willow Gourds, a company that grew out of a desire to continue the hand graphics that she had refined over the last 25 years in the Land Planning and Landscape Architectural field. As time moved forward, hand graphics were replaced with computer graphics and Heather’s talent was set on the back burner. The creation of Desert Willow Gourds LLC has allowed her express her creative talent through carving, painting, staining, and color pencil rendering. Working with gourd embellishments additionally allows her to prepare innovative feather, bead, natural material shards and sterling silver adornments to incorporate a head dress for the story being told with the gourd. She is a member of the Arizona Gourd Society and has shown her gourds at exhibitions and galleries in Wyoming and Arizona.

Education / Registrations

Memberships and Associations

About the Gourds

 

Ms Kinkade’s techniques/mediums consist of carving, burning, acrylic paint, and color pencil.Her embellishments include feathers, natural stones and shells as well as silver, copper, and brass accents. The acrylic paint is only used to create the solid color panels, while all other color is created by color pencil.

All of her gourds are purchased from the Wuertz Gourd Farm in Casa Grande, Arizona. Because of Arizona’s long growing season, this farm is able to grow thick gourds, making Wuertz Gourd Farm one of the nation’s best. Wuertz Farm currently grows over 200,000 quality gourds each year! These natural uncleaned gourds are completely dry and come in many shapes and forms. Ms Kinkade selects her gourds based on size, weight, shape, and stem configuration of the individual gourd. The gourds are then cleaned, burned, carved, painted and colored. Two final protective coatings finish the gourds. Embellishments are determined by the feel and look of the gourd.

More information about the Wuertz Gourd Farm and Wuertz Gourd Festival can be found at: http://www.wuertzfarm.com.