Aloha and Welcome!

I've been fascinated by gourds since 2003. After looking at a red-painted birdhouse in a book my aunt had sent us, without any experience in carving, painting or even drawing, I just had to get a gourd, picked up the tools we had had and just like that, I was addicted! (Nobody had warned me!)

Four years later, it's still a hobby rather than a business.

Gourd is a beautiful gift from nature and has been an important part of history of many cultures throughout the world.

I have a high respect for gourds. They're beautiful as they are and when working with them, I try hard to preserve the beauty of their natural shapes, textures, unique characters and flaws by designing them accordingly. The last thing I want to do is taking away the gourd's natural beauty.

I have been using paints that better suit even the Hawai'ian humid and sunny weather and last.

The beautiful tropical flowers, leaves and the gentlest creature, the giant green sea turtles here on the islands give me inspirations for the designs. Most of my work are carved or woodburned, some cut-out. They're all done right on my lanai (deck) at my home, here in Hawai'i. Each design is original and freehand, sketched one at a time.

To see what's available at this time, please visit "What's Available" 

If you have a non-island designs or different styles in mind, I'll be glad to introduce you to my wonderful gourder friends. I have a lot of wonderful gourder friends who specialize in different things, such as human figures and Native Americans that I'm fond of but not good at. I would be happy to ask them to contact you directly.

What's New:

Thank you Jim Widess and Ginger Summit for writing yet another wonderful gourd book, Making Gourd Dolls and Spirit Figures, realeasing in June 2007 and thank you for giving me the honor to be a part of it.

Here are some pictures of my gourd doll that is in the book.

Polynesian Mother and Child

All naturally embellished

The mother is a lidded bowl and the baby, a scooper

The mother's hair is untwisted seagrass, headpiece, dried leaves and palm stalks and the flower ear pick is a broken pine cone.

Baby Scooper                                                          Mother's Bowl Body

The belly is open, hair is heliconia seeds.         'Ulu (breadfruit) design, an important staple,

                                                                                                also a symbol of families taking care of each other and

                                                                                     never let each other go hungry or uncared for.

                                                                                         The design on the bottom is the symbol of 'aina (land) and

                                                                           the background, "turtle shell" burning.

Thank you for visiting me again at the Lanikai Fair. It was good to see you again.

My next fair will hopefully be the Lanikai Christmas Fair, the first Saturday of December.

When I have inventory at home, appointments could be arranged by e-mail, ardee@islandgourds.com or call (808) 398-6412

I'm back home now and have been running around the island with our visiting nephew then cousin on Labor Day weekend. I will be back to gourding afterwards and should have some gourds available around mid September. I do have a few pieces left.

Meanwhile, my work could be found at these fine stores and galleries:

Gallery Haiku, Windward Mall, Kaneohe

Ipu Kula Gallery, Temple Valley Shopping Center, Kaneohe

Island Treasures Gallery, Kailua

Mana Hawai'i, Waikiki

Martin and MacArthur, Ala Moana Center, Honolulu

Na Mea Hawai'i, Ward Warehouse, Honolulu

Orchids of Waiahole, Waiahole

Pat's Island Delights, Queen St., Honolulu

The "What's Available"  page was last updated on September 22th, 2007

Mahalo for visiting!

Glad that a couple of my gourds got to see some of you at the Wuertz Gourd Festival in AZ.

Thank you AZGS for receiving, displaying, repacking and resending my gourds safely and thank you for the ribbons, too! :0)

I hope to see more of you next year.

Monstera Cut out Vase                     Fern Purse, deeper carved

2nd Place, Cut Category, Open Division   2nd Place, Hats/ Purse Category, Novice Division

Wuertz Gourd Festival, Arizona, March 2007

                      Carved Hibiscus Lidded Bowl                                                      Breadfruit Ipu                                    Bird of Paradise

The above three  and middle below are deeper carved.