How to make a vessel from lagenaria. Growing and caring for lagenaria (bottle gourd or gourd)

Chinese cucumber, Indian zucchini, Bottle gourd, Dish gourd, Dry gourd, Gourd - this is all of it, still little known, but already settled in our beds - lagenaria. Its fruits, of a bizarre exotic shape, have a very diverse use.

On my site I grow plants mainly for decorative purposes. But, you see, it’s great when you can combine business with pleasure. Representatives from the pumpkin family allow us to do this. For example, multi-colored zucchini, orange squash that looks like the sun, unusual pumpkins - they not only decorate the garden and vegetable garden, diversify our menu, but even in cold winter, reminding us of the warm summer, they save us gardeners from depression.

This spring I found Lagenaria (Bottle Gourd) seeds at the garden center. Since there was still a lot of time before planting, I began to study information about this exotic plant.

Every spring I look for seeds of new varieties in stores so that I can experiment and, if I’m lucky, get wonderful fruits. Last year I managed to grow several varieties of hard-barked decorative small pumpkins.

Lagenaria has been known since ancient times. This pumpkin was found during excavations of Egyptian tombs. In ancient Chinese manuscripts she was referred to as the “queen of vegetables.” In the imperial garden, lagenaria was grown as an ornamental plant, from the fruits of which craftsmen made vases and dishes of extraordinary beauty. Bottle gourd grows wild in India and Africa.

Depending on the variety, lagenaria has pear-shaped, round, club-shaped and fruits up to 2 m long. Moreover, they grow continuously, even if you cut off a large piece from an unusual zucchini, the cut site quickly tightens, and lagenaria continues to grow. Young, long-fruited bottle gourds are suitable for eating. They are used to make pancakes, salads, stuffed like regular zucchini, make caviar, pickle and salt. Nutritionists believe that eating lagenaria improves metabolism, strengthens immunity, removes salts and radionuclides, and lowers blood pressure.

Lagenaria flowers are amazingly beautiful: very large, glass-shaped, in the morning they are light cream in color, and in the evening they are pure white.

Growing lagenaria. Experts recommend growing lagenaria in seedlings, a month before planting in open ground. Lagenaria seeds have a hard shell, so some gardeners soak them in hot water (45 degrees) before sowing and leave them for 2 days. Then they are germinated in a damp dense tissue at room temperature. After the lagenaria seeds sprout, they are placed in a container with the sprout down. Planted in open ground when the threat of frost has passed. After all, lagenaria is a southern, heat-loving plant. But, despite this, it easily tolerates the autumn cold snap and bears fruit abundantly until frost.

Lagenaria is not picky about soil; any loose, fertile garden soil with the addition of humus is suitable for growing lagenaria.

When landing, I did everything strictly following the recommendations. Lagenaria seeds sprouted quite quickly and began to grow very actively. This is where the problems started. The lashes became longer and longer every day and began to cause me a lot of trouble, and there was less and less space left on the windowsill. After my husband transported the seedlings to the dacha, I completely despaired. The lashes broke, and the picture became completely depressing. I planted “my grief” on a compost heap near the fence. And just in case, I decided to play it safe - I sowed two more dry seeds in the damp soil and covered everything with covering material. After a couple of weeks, the seedlings completely withered, but to great joy, two sprouts appeared from the ground! The weather was warm and favorable, and my lagenaria was gaining strength every day. She moved from the compost heap to the fence. Its shoots are quite powerful and reach a length of 3 to 15 m.

The daily growth of leaves and shoots of lagenaria is up to 50 cm, it blooms continuously. One plant can have both flowers and fruits. Therefore, lagenaria has always looked decorative and attractive.

Some varieties (bottle form) have a bitter taste, so they are not used for food. All kinds of dishes and souvenirs are made from them. Fully ripened and dried lagenaria fruits can be processed like wood: sawed, sanded, drilled, burned, jigsawed, cut, and then primed, painted, varnished and done with everything that your rich imagination can tell you. This lagenaria craft was given to my neighbor.

Growing lagenaria is not difficult. Caring for it is similar to caring for a pumpkin. Throughout the summer, I regularly loosened the soil and watered it if necessary. It was very interesting to watch the growth of lagenaria fruits. They grew and gained strength, literally, “by leaps and bounds.” By the way, they can be given any shape by placing the ovaries in wooden forms, which will be filled with growing fruits.

In the fall, before frost, I cut off the fruits of lagenaria with the stalk and moved them into the house and then left them on a warm windowsill to reach condition. I dream of making some crafts out of them. But that's a completely different story...

Lyubov Smirnova, amateur gardener

“Garden Affairs” No. 3 (47), 2011

Lagenaria, or bottle gourd, is a plant that has many names: bottle lagenaria, Vietnamese squash, gourd. The most popular variety of lagenaria, suitable for growing in the Russian central zone, is called serpentine lagenaria. Any novice gardener can easily cope with growing lagenaria. Lagenaria does not require complex care. The main thing when growing it is to water it regularly. Care also includes fertilizing and loosening.

Due to its ease of care and cultivation, it often grows in gardens and vegetable gardens. It is usually grown by gardeners who prefer low-maintenance plants. Lagenaria dishes are very healthy because gourd pumpkin is rich in vitamins.

However, not everyone knows that, in addition to delicious dishes, you can make very interesting crafts from this original pumpkin. Original do-it-yourself souvenirs made from gourds will serve as an excellent gift for family and friends and will take their rightful place at a fair or exhibition. You can make original dishes from a gourd. Sometimes they make interesting toys out of it. You can also make unusual Christmas tree decorations from it.

It is no coincidence that Lagenaria is called dish gourd, or bottle gourd. You can make beautiful dishes from it. This plant is also called gourd gourd because the fruits of lagenaria have a shape that resembles a small pot-bellied vessel with a narrow neck. Most often, in crafts made from lagenaria, it is the original shape of the fruits of the “Vietnamese zucchini” that is played up.

The main advantage of lagenaria as a material for crafts is that its fruits require virtually no additional processing. It is enough to simply dry them, remove the pulp, cover them with colorless varnish and paint them in an original way, in accordance with the purpose of the finished product. To make crafts, you should select the largest, strongest and most ripe lagenaria fruits.

Most often, the following types of souvenirs are made from lagenaria, or bottle gourd:

• Dishes for children and adults, as well as toy dishes;
• Original flower vases;
• Kids toys;
• Christmas decorations;
• Matryoshka dolls.

Before making the craft, the lagenaria fruits need to be cut and dried. It is best to dry them in such a way that the fruits are not exposed to direct sunlight, otherwise the blanks for crafts will quickly fade and crack. The ideal drying option is on a window facing the sunny side. You can also dry fruits even faster by using special dryers for berries, vegetables and fruits, such as the Veterok dryer. When the fruits are prepared for drying, all the pulp is completely removed from them.

The most convenient way to do this is with a special wire bent at the end, because such a wire, provided it is long enough, allows you to reach the very bottom and successfully collect all the pulp from the walls. Then the workpiece is dried. Provided proper drying, the workpiece becomes dry and hard. Now the Vietnamese squash fruit resembles a cup or a vase, depending on the shape. Using imagination and a creative approach to business, you can make anything from this blank. Fruits intended for making crafts should not have damage or signs of rotting.

Gallery: pumpkin crafts (25 photos)

Manufacturing Features

Even a child - a primary school student - can cope with making crafts from lagenaria. The main thing is to properly prepare the materials for crafts. You can make a wide variety of dishes from lagenaria, because each gourd pumpkin fruit has a special shape: there are small pot-bellied pumpkins, and there are long, elongated fruits that resemble a bottle. Utensils made from lagenaria resemble ancient wooden utensils. Depending on the shape, the following types of kitchen utensils can be made from lagenaria:

Lagenaria dishes

When making dishes from lagenaria, the home craftsman should start from the shape of the workpiece. The basic principle of sculptors applies here: take the material and simply cut off everything unnecessary from it. The finished dishes can not be painted, but simply coated with colorless varnish, because the lagenaria fruits themselves have a beautiful natural color and also have an interesting texture. However, you can also decorate the dishes with original ornaments. In this case, a primer is first applied to the workpiece, then the workpiece is painted.

And finally, it is completely covered with colorless varnish and placed on a shelf until completely dry.

A variety of ornaments can be used to decorate dishes made from gourds: geometric shapes, borders of zigzags and wavy lines, floral decor, stylized images of animals and birds in the style of ancient Russian wood carving. You can apply a design with paint, you can decorate the dishes with carvings, or you can use a burning device for this purpose.

Most often, lagenaria dishes are painted.

Pumpkin dishes can be used for their intended purpose: drinking from it. However, if the workpiece was initially poorly dried, constant contact with liquid can cause mold to appear. It is best to use lagenaria dishes for storing bulk products and spices or as decoration.

Such dishes are perfect for kitchen interiors decorated in Provence style (also known as country, folk or rustic style). Also, dishes made from gourds will look impressive at exhibitions and craft fairs. From the smallest pumpkins you can make a set for a large doll: pots, tureens, bowls and cups.

Also, original toys are often made from dried gourd gourds. You can effectively play up the characteristic shape of the Vietnamese zucchini (a pot-bellied pumpkin with an elongated neck) by making a whole set of nesting dolls from the fruits. To do this, you need to select several bottle gourd fruits, slightly different from each other in size. The upper, slightly elongated part of the fruit will be the “head” of the nesting doll, and the lower, wide part of the pumpkin will be its “body”.

In the upper part you need to draw a circle, and in this circle you should depict the doll’s face: hair, eyes, nose and mouth, red cheeks, everything like in a classic matryoshka doll. The rest of the fruit is a “shawl”, a “suit” of the nesting doll, it needs to be painted accordingly. You can draw bright flowers on the “scarf” and “costume”, draw hands on the matryoshka doll, and decorate it with bright ornaments in folklore style.

You can paint a lagenaria blank, intended for making dishes, white, and then wait until it dries and paint blue flowers on a white background, and you will get original dishes, decorated with “Gzhel” painting. You can cut the elongated lagenaria fruit lengthwise into two halves, remove the pulp, and you will get two blanks for wooden spoons. Improvised spoons - decorate with “Khokhloma” painting.

Many home craftsmen believe that crafts made from lagenaria must be brightly colored, then they will turn out to be the most expressive, cheerful, cheerful and vibrant. However, among home craftsmen there is a different opinion. Some craftsmen who have extensive experience working with lagenaria believe that it does not need to be painted at all, but only coated with colorless varnish to protect it from damage and mold.

Lagenaria is a wonderful vegetable. You can cook delicious dishes from it, as well as make very unusual cups, boxes, bowls and even toys. Also, the gourd pumpkin looks beautiful in the garden or vegetable garden as an ornamental plant. Recently, this plant has become very popular and is quite often found in the front gardens of lovers of ornamental plants. Crafts from lagenaria, made with your own hands at home, are an excellent souvenir for family and friends. The main thing is to choose healthy, strong fruits and dry them properly.

Lagenaria is also known as dish squash, bottle gourd, gourd, Indian cucumber, Vietnamese squash, sauce squash. Comes from India, Central Asia and Africa. It has been known to man since ancient times. Currently, lagenaria crops are widespread in countries of the tropical and subtropical zone. In Russia they learned about it in the 15th century, when it was described by Afanasy Nikitin in his work “Walking across Three Seas.” An annual plant of the pumpkin family. Young juicy green fruits of long-fruited forms, as well as young leaves and tops of shoots are used for food.

The fruits accumulate calcium, magnesium, iron salts, carbohydrates and vitamins C, B, B2, PP, carotene, and pectin. They are useful for diseases of the stomach, intestines, and skin rashes. The fruits contain a substance that slows down the growth of tumors.

Lagenaria has a creeping stem up to 15 m long and large leaves with soft pubescence.

The root penetrates to a depth of 80 cm. The flowers are dioecious, solitary, located in the leaf axils, white. Cross pollination. The fruits are bare, smooth, of various shapes: thin and wide, serpentine and oval, but most often they resemble a bottle. The sizes of the fruits range from small to gigantic, large enough to accommodate an adult. Unripe fruits are loose, juicy, and taste like cucumber.

The growing season ranges from 150 to 220 days. The optimal temperature for seed germination is 18-20 degrees, for plant growth and development - 20-25 degrees, relative air humidity 70-80 percent, soil moisture 70-80 percent HB.

Lagenaria responds well to watering with warm water, fertilizing, frequent loosening and organic matter. At temperatures below 10 degrees it stops growing, and in mild frosts it dies. It can tolerate drought, but does not tolerate excess moisture.

There are no zoned varieties of lagenaria in our country.

Growing lagenaria

Lagenaria is grown in the same way as pumpkin: in the southern regions - by sowing seeds in the ground, in more northern regions - by seedlings. Before sowing, the seeds are soaked or germinated until sprouts appear. Seeds are sown according to a 2×2 m pattern; 2.1×2.1 m; 2.5x2.5 m per hole.

First, humus (1-2 kg) and mineral fertilizers (15 g of superphosphate each) are added to the holes or germinated until sprouts appear.

Seeds are sown according to a 2×2 m pattern; 2.1×2.1;2.5×2.5 m in holes. First, humus (1-2 kg) and mineral fertilizers (15 grams of superphosphate and ammonium nitrate) are added to the holes.

Fertilizers are mixed well with the soil. You can sow along fences, near sheds, houses, gazebos. When sowing, water with warm water (1 liter per hole).

In the 5-b leaf phase, the plants are hilled up, sometimes trellises are placed (read about trellises) and other types of supports along which the plants climb (you can see diagrams and drawings). To increase the size of fruits and accelerate their ripening, non-fruiting shoots and excess ovaries are removed and pinched (when grown for seeds). Sometimes fruits are given the desired shape by placing young ovaries in wooden blanks.

Growing lagenaria gourd for seeds.

To obtain seeds, plants are grown in the same way as for food purposes. For better seed ripening, the number of fruits on the plant is limited by removing excess female flowers. The fruits of the gourd in biological ripeness have a very durable wooden shell.

When ripe and dried, the end at the stalk is sawed off, and the seeds are poured out of the resulting hole. After this, the fetal cavity is cleared of the endocarp and used as a dish.

African and South Asian peoples carry water in such containers and store milk, flour, and grain. Small-fruited forms of gourds are used to make boxes, snuff boxes and other products.

Lagenaria - personal experience of growing and caring

This annual plant from the pumpkin family has been known to man for a very long time. In China, lagenaria was cultivated two millennia BC. And its homeland is India and Central Asia. The fruits of lagenaria have different shapes, which is why it is called differently everywhere - table gourd, gourd, bottle gourd, Vietnamese cucumber, Indian cucumber.

The walls of lagenaria fruits are quite strong. When dried, the inside of the fruit remains empty. It makes an excellent jug for storing food and drinks that is not exposed to microorganisms. This plant is especially popular among the peoples of Africa. What do they not make from the fruits of lagenaria - basins, bowls, ladles, decorations, pipes for water supply, the famous tom-toms! In completely wild tribes, where they don’t even know what clothing is, men still use one single item to protect their reproductive organs. And all these caps are made from the appropriate type of lagenaria.

Young lagenaria ovaries, which resemble cucumbers, are eaten as food: they have thin skin and do not become rough for a long time. You can use them to prepare salads, bake pancakes, fry, marinate.

Young lagenaria fruits have a unique feature. They can not be torn off, but cut off in parts. The cut site quickly corks, and the fruit continues to grow.

Lagenaria is distinguished by its strong growth and branching of stems and tendrils. The root system is very powerful. The green leaves are soft velvety, beautiful large flowers begin to bloom in the afternoon and are fully open by midnight. Both male and female flowers are produced on the same plant.

In central Russia, it is advisable to grow lagenaria through seedlings. I first soak the seeds in a growth stimulator for several hours, then put them in a warm place until they peck. I sow the hatched seeds at the end of April in individual pots with a diameter of 10-12 cm with a light and nutritious soil mixture. I grow seedlings at a temperature of 22-24C.

I plant seedlings in a permanent place at the end of May. when the soil has warmed up enough. It is important to choose a good location for the plants. I plant lagenaria at the ends of film shelters, tying the whip to the nearest support or tree. Thus, the root system is warm, and almost the entire vegetative mass receives complete freedom and maximum illumination. And then the huge “sausages” - fruits - look very interesting hanging from the tree. You can plant plants on the south side of buildings or along a mesh fence. The distance between them should be from 50 to 100 cm. I pre-fill the holes with soil mixed with humus, adding a glass of ash and 2 tbsp. spoons of organomineral fertilizer. Then I spill them with warm water. I plant pots with plants without deepening them. After planting the hole, I mulch with humus.

Lagenaria loves abundant daily watering with warm water.

In the second half of the growing season, plant roots themselves can easily obtain water. Over the summer I carry out 3-4 feedings, alternating organic and mineral (with a complete complex fertilizer).

As I said above, female flowers open in the evening. In our conditions, insects stop growing at this time. That's why I use artificial pollination. To do this, I pick a male flower with pollen, carefully tear off its petals and apply it to the female flower so that the pollen gets on the stigma. You can carry out the same operation using a brush. After just a few days, the ovary of the female flower begins to rapidly increase in size. To avoid thickening, part of the side shoots and ovaries must be removed, leaving 3-5 fruits on the plant.

Tips for gardeners when growing lagenaria

• do not scarify the seeds (high-quality ones will germinate on their own);
• do not plant lagenaria in the shade - it is very light-loving;
• do not use dense soil with high acidity for planting;
• Due to the high resistance of the root system to rot, lagenaria can be used to graft watermelon and melon onto it.

Note to the hostess - recipes for lagenaria dishes

Stewed lagenaria.

Peel the fruits, cut into slices 1.5-2 cm thick, place in a slightly heated frying pan, greased, add salt, close the lid tightly and simmer for 12-15 minutes, turning the slices over. Then sprinkle them with breadcrumbs, add butter and simmer for 2 minutes without covering. Place the finished slices on a plate. Sprinkle with finely chopped celery.

For 500 g of lagenaria - 2-3 tablespoons of crackers, 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, celery, salt to taste.

“Carefree inhabitants of the midday regions! Nature gives them everything, just stretch out your hand to take it: food, clothing, and even dishes...”

Marquis de Suailles, Journey to Hot Countries. 1722

I just can’t agree with the Marquis, especially about the dishes, because I know how this dishes are made here in Central Asia. And at the same time, I can swear that in 1722 this dish was made in the same way and the manufacturing recipe was the same.

I'm talking about bottle pumpkins. Here - in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan - they are still in use. Needless to say, these pumpkins are not the only dishes in the house; there are porcelain, ceramic, and metal ones. And there is also pumpkin. And in some ways, pumpkin dishes are superior to any other. For example, kumys does not spoil in it. The Kirghiz in the mountain villages of the Samarkand region grow a special variety of bottle pumpkin for fermenting, storing and transporting kumis. Because kumiss, no matter what container you pour it into, even the cleanest enameled one, quickly loses its taste and medicinal qualities. And you can carry it in a pumpkin bottle for several days, and nothing will happen to it.

The pumpkin from which the dishes are made has a thin and durable peel, but inside it is empty, there is almost no pulp, only a few seeds. Still, these are not ready-made dishes. You need to make dishes out of it.

When the pumpkin vines become long enough, they are sent to a fence or a special fence. The scourge grows wildly, clinging to anything, and crawling upward like a vine. It is necessary that they crawl upward, because the ovary of the pumpkin fruit must hang from the moment it appears, so that the bottom of the future dish does not come into contact with anything. And so the pumpkin grows and stretches in length, and this gives it a neck.

Pumpkins are harvested in the fall after the first frost. By this time the peel becomes hard. Cut off the neck at the end, pour crushed pebbles into the pumpkin and shake for a long time. They pour it out and do this again ten times. The edges of the pebbles are sharp; they cut off thin dried films inside the pumpkin. The inside of the pumpkin becomes clean. Almost. Now we need to bring it to complete cleanliness. Hot ash is poured into the pumpkin and shaken again. Hot ash completely burns out everything unnecessary on the walls of the pumpkin and, as it were, polishes them from the inside.

But even here the pumpkin “torment” is not over. It is washed with boiling juniper broth. (Archa is a juniper.) Then the pumpkin is dried. After drying, they are smoked with juniper smoke. And after all this, vegetable oil is poured into the pumpkin. It gradually absorbs the oil and becomes red and shiny. Now the pumpkin dishes are ready.

This is how a pumpkin bottle for kumys is made. Another contains fifteen liters.

You can make dishes from pumpkin for other purposes. Then you need to do it a little differently. You can swim with a bottle pumpkin: only for this purpose the neck is not cut off; They simply tie together several pumpkins with a rope. There are so many other things you can do with pumpkin. You just need to know how. After all, nature only provides pumpkin, and everything else is done by man.

An unusual vegetable. It is simply irreplaceable in dietary nutrition. You can make anything from pumpkin, from salad to dessert. In addition, it is used, masks made from it are suitable for any skin, the skin blooms after it. Pumpkin is also an ideal material for creativity; crafts made from pumpkin will decorate your home and create a special atmosphere in it. Today you will learn what pumpkin crafts you can make, and also learn how to make pumpkin crafts correctly.

For pumpkin crafts, you can use both regular pumpkins and decorative ones. Decorative pumpkins have fancy shapes - star-shaped, pear-shaped, bottle-shaped and are already home decorations in themselves; all you need to do is dry them well and paint them beautifully.

The possibilities for working with pumpkin are endless. It can be decorated with carvings and burned like wood, its peel is quite hard, painted with any paints - watercolor, oil, acrylic, and also used for decoration: glitter, beads, spikelets, rowan branches and any other natural material, ribbons.

Pumpkin is made from:

• lamps and fixtures;
• toys;
• kitchen utensils;
• birdhouses and feeders;
• figures and sculptures;
• vases and home decor.

The easiest way is to make lamps or candlesticks from pumpkins. Small pumpkins are ideal for candle holders, but it is better to make a lamp from a large pumpkin, and use light bulbs or floating candles as a light source.

But what excites me the most are the openwork pumpkin lamps made by Prezemek Krawczynski.

They are known all over the world. You cannot remain indifferent to them. For their production, a special pumpkin from Senegal is used.

Pumpkin clock

By showing creativity and imagination, you can make a unique clock from a pumpkin that will become the highlight of your home. To make such a watch, you can use hands from an old watch, a telephone dial, or wire. The dial can be drawn or cut out as you wish. But in order for this pumpkin craft to decorate your home for as long as possible, the pumpkin must be dried well. We'll talk about how best to do this later.

Pumpkin toys

From a small decorative pumpkin you can make nesting dolls, carriages, funny people, and a whole family. These pumpkin crafts can be made together with children; there are no limits to their imagination.

Pumpkin kitchen utensils

For kitchen utensils, they mainly use a special pumpkin - lagenaria, for its fancy shape in the form of a jug, although from an ordinary pumpkin, if you choose the middle, you can make an excellent tureen and serve different things in it, for example, pumpkin soup or pumpkin dessert.

Pumpkin birdhouses

One of the garden design options could be pumpkin birdhouses. They are more likely to be a wonderful decoration of the garden, but birds may not settle in them.

Pumpkin vases

Pumpkin vases can be a worthy decoration for your home. You can put flowers in them in a special sponge soaked in a nutrient solution or dried flowers.

Pumpkin vases made by American artist Marilyn Sunderland became a real work of art. These are real masterpieces. It is impossible not to admire the artist’s work.

You can see the most complete selection of her works in this video. I hope that such beauty will encourage you to be creative and give you new ideas.

Pumpkin sculptures

You can create entire sculptures from pumpkins that amaze with their positivity and sincerity. You can’t take your eyes off the pumpkin sculptures by American artist Ray Villafane.

If you have the desire, you can start creating crafts from pumpkin, but this process is very labor-intensive and requires patience, imagination and skills.

How to make pumpkin crafts correctly

There are certain rules here

Rule one - choose the right tool and auxiliary materials for the job.

You will need: a special knife, a scraper or a comfortable spoon, paper or newspaper for drying the pumpkin, tape for securing the stencil before painting, an awl for applying the design, carbon paper or charcoal for applying the pattern, a device for burning wood, paint.

Rule two - selecting and drying pumpkins

Crafts can be made from both raw and dried pumpkin. However, remember that crafts made from raw pumpkin are not durable and may rot, so it is preferable to use dried pumpkins.

For pumpkin crafts, you should choose ripened pumpkins without signs of damage. The pumpkin should be washed well, dried with a towel and wiped with alcohol.

If you are not going to store the pumpkin craft for a long time, then 2 weeks is enough for drying. First cut off the top of the pumpkin, remove the seeds and pulp with a scraper or spoon, stuff it with paper, change it periodically when it gets wet, and leave to dry. Paper allows the pumpkin to maintain its original shape and prevents rotting.

Pumpkins should be dried in a warm, well-ventilated area. Pumpkins should not touch each other. You cannot dry the pumpkin in a radiator room, otherwise it will all wrinkle and be unsuitable for crafts.

For long-term use of crafts, for example, dishes, the pumpkin should be dried for about six months, then its crust dries out sufficiently and hardens.

To protect against rotting, it is better to dry not one, but several pumpkins, then there will be no disappointment about an unfulfilled dream. Keep an eye on your pumpkins, turn them daily to notice rotting in time and remove spoiled vegetables.

Rule three - use different techniques when working with pumpkin

Come up with a design that you want to put on the pumpkin and transfer it to thin paper. Attach it to the pumpkin using tape and transfer it using an awl, running it along the contour of the design.

If you are working on a raw pumpkin, then the pattern can be applied with a vegetable cutter, and if you are working on a dried pumpkin, then the pattern is applied with a jigsaw or wood burning device.

Cut out the design from the center, this will make it smoother, and only then apply paint.

To paint pumpkin crafts, it is better to use acrylic paints; they do not wash off. You should not cover the pumpkin with varnish, it does not allow the pumpkin to breathe and leads to the craft drying out and wrinkling.

I hope that my tips were useful to you, and you will enjoy plunging into the world of creativity, using the proposed ideas for creating pumpkin crafts. Which will delight you for a long time.

Sincerely, Nadezhda Karacheva.