Let's Make Halloween Gourd Dolls

Anyone of any age can create gourd dolls for Halloween, all you need is paint, hot glue, fabric, and the embellishments you desire. These two fellows were inspired by a novel perfect for Halloween reading and the musical (it made sense at the time) and so they are sort of Phantom of the Opera dolls, or something like that. Please keep in mind these dear fellows likely have a few years on younger crafters, so be kind when you speak of them.

I grew the gourds myself and dried them on my back porch for about six months, then cleaned them in a mild bleach solution to remove any mold and gently rubbed off the skins once dry. To make things easier for younger crafters, why not start with faux gourds? Children can also find dried gourd at the local craft store or craft fairs. Now let's get crafting.

You'll need:

Black Paint

While Paint

Glitter Glue

Black Felt

Beaded Ribbon

Mardi Gras Hair Tie

Gold Paint Pen

Purple Crafting Clay

Yellow Crafting Clay

To make this doll dry and clean your gourd. Then add your base color. I chose black for the scenes in the novel where Erik is dress in his opera cape and evening dress. Let this dry completely and keep in mine it may take several coats.

To make Erik's opera dress I added white accents and clothing details with a gold paint pen, plus glitter in contrasting colors because the bombastic use of color in the musical influenced me. The Hands, feet and face were molded feet hand from children's crafting clay, then added.

People who remember the actual novel will remember Erik is describes as having yellow skin stretched so tightly over his bones that he looks like a living skeleton and glowing gold eyes so those details were added using yellow clay and a paint pen.

Because he looked so somber I added the Mardi Gras hair tie and green beaded ribbon trim and fun accents like bells on his softened feet. So he is sort of a mix between the Phantom and a harmless gourd critter.

The Red Death gourd doll was made the same way, except with red paint for his base, and red crafting clay for his hands, feet and face. It sounds strange but gourd do have personalities. Both these gourds directed the way they were crafted. So instead of somber, serious dolls like I intended the overall effect was soft, rounded and childlike.