08/15/2026
BASKET WEAVERS — HAVE YOU TRIED GOURD ART? 🧺
If you enjoy basket weaving, gourding may be a natural next step in your creative journey.
Basket makers and gourd artists have more in common than you might think. Artists are combining dried gourds with reed, pine needles, leather, waxed linen, beads and other natural materials to create beautiful baskets, bowls, vessels and decorative pieces.
Instead of weaving an entire basket, the gourd becomes part of the structure — providing a natural base for weaving, coiling, netting and decorative rims.
🧺 WHERE BASKETRY MEETS GOURD ART
One great example is the Mountain Gourd Gathering in Hendersonville, North Carolina.
The 14th Annual Mountain Gourd Gathering was held August 7–9, 2026, at the Etowah Lion's Club. The three-day event brought together instructors, students and vendors for hands-on gourd classes covering a wide variety of techniques.
What really caught our attention at North Georgia Basketry was how many of the projects crossed directly into the basketry world.
Participants could learn:
🧺 Mini Bowl and Basket — weaving directly onto prepared gourds.
🌿 Stamp, Doodle and Coil — decorating a gourd and finishing it with a coiled rim using round basket reed.
🪡 Knotless Netting — creating netting down the gourd and finishing it with an endless-wave rim using waxed linen and suede leather.
🌲 Pine Needle Coiling — learning the basic techniques of wrapped centers and coiling with longleaf pine needles and artificial sinew.
🟤 Braided Leather Rims — adding a woven-looking leather rim to a gourd bowl.
Artists also explored woodburning, carving, dyes, painting, sculpture, lamps and mixed-media techniques. The event even included a gourd vendor offering gourds, dyes, burners, cutters, patterns and other supplies.
👉 Learn more about the Mountain Gourd Gathering:
mountaingourdgathering.weebly.com
🌻 MORE GOURD EVENTS TO EXPLORE
North Carolina Gourd Arts & Crafts Festival
📅 August 29–30, 2026
📍 Durham, North Carolina
The 84th annual festival includes two days of classes, vendors offering raw and crafted gourds, tools and supplies, competitions, Make & Take projects and educational displays.
👉 ncgourdsociety.org
Georgia Gourd Festival
📅 October 23–25, 2026
📍 Griffin, Georgia
The Georgia Gourd Society's annual festival features classes for different experience levels, demonstrations, competitions, educational displays, Make-It-'n-Take-It projects, raw gourds, supplies and finished gourd art.
👉 georgiagourdsociety.com
🌎 FIND GOURD EVENTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY
The American Gourd Society promotes gourd growing, crafting and education and maintains information about chapters and gourd activities around the United States.
👉 americangourdsociety.org
🧺 MAYBE YOUR NEXT BASKET STARTS WITH A GOURD!
For basket weavers, gourding provides another way to use skills you may already have while experimenting with an entirely different natural material.
Reed + pine needles + fiber + gourds = some amazing possibilities.
Have you ever woven around a gourd, added a basketry rim to one, or combined basket weaving with gourd art?
📸 Share a photo of your work in the comments! We'd love to introduce more basket weavers to this fascinating crossover between two traditional crafts.
North Georgia Basketry
🌐 northgeorgiabasketry.com
Connecting weavers with basketry events, guilds, artists, techniques and creative ideas from across the USA.
