Calabash Vessel - Ode to the Calabash

The Calabash gourd (Totuma as it is known in Panamá) has been observed to pre-date pottery as a water carrying vessel which for me is mesmerising when I touch the body of these ancient fruits that humans have lived in relationship with for so long. I have been exploring creating these woven vessels with calabashes that I’ve been harvesting from the abundance of trees in my local area.

May this be an ode, a blessing, a tribute to this majestic fruit that has carried water for generations and gifted its body to our ancestors.

“Bow to what gives you life”

I think of these poignant words shared by the writer Martín Prechtel” Certainly it feels as though we should be bowing to the calabash , for the calabash has been fundamental in our species material culture and our ancestors depended on its life-giving body to sustain their own lives. Something about this makes me feel part of something bigger than myself within a deep stretch of time as I imagine all those before me who have felt deep gratitude for this noble fruit. So as Martín says, let’s bow to what gives life, let’s bow to this life-sustaining bless-ed fruit. Let’s remember the holy all around us.

I mostly harvest calabazas on horseback as they are pretty heavy when the fruit is full of flesh. Firstly I remove the flesh and leave them to receive the suns drying warmth for several days. I then begin to sand back the layers of the shell which begins to reveal a wonderous array of fleshy tones ~ peeling back the skin layer by layer, each brush of sandpaper revealing another layer of the shell of these wondrous gourds…

Emergence

Transformation

Remembrance

The weaving is a coiled construction made from Nahuala and Chunga plants which i work with regularly. The Chunga is dyed with a variety of different plants, roots, barks and seeds to gift their colour. Each vessel therefore is a web of many plants as well as the calabash itself.

Plant Particpants

Body ~ Calabash Gourd

Core ~ Nahuala (Carludovica Palmata)⠀

Spiral Weavers ~ Chunga (Astrocaryum standleyanum)

Dye Plants used for weavers - Teka leaves, Nance wood

Each vessel comes on a ring woven from Nahuala to sit balanced on a flat surface.

Largest Diameter Point  - 21cm