Fat Pony Design 

Originally from North Wales … land of Welsh Ponies & Welsh Corgis Tammy, a self-taught artist first found artistic expression in children’s wall murals and hand painted furniture; these days her focus is uniquely designed hand painted gourds.
The gourds I use are hard shell gourds, these vary significantly in size, shape and thickness depending on the growing season, harvesting and curing.
At the time of harvest the gourd is composed of 90% water; curing is the process of evaporation as all the interior water leaches out through the porous ‘woody’ outer shell and eventually dries on the gourd surface, which then has to be scrubbed off. The drying time for gourds varies from 6 weeks to maybe a year depending on weather and other variables.
Once dried the gourd feels quite light when picked up and if you shake it the seeds inside give it the sound of a rattle.
Tammy uses larger gourds for her creations and chooses each one individually …….
“ they are like good friends;no two are the same…lumps and bumps included
I grow some gourds but the larger ones I use come from Fallbrook, CA.
Leather or ink dyes are used to bring out the characteristics of the whole gourd, then depending upon the final design & detail I will use a variety of colour mediums.The decorative long-leaf pine needles used I have gathered in South Carolina or California and are hand dyed, I then coil them around the top of a gourd as with a basket and stitch with artificial sinew. I like to use embellishments that are natural & in sync with the unique feel of each gourd; beads mostly used are turquoise, red coral and bone. I also use deer antlers because of their raw natural essence, the horse hair I use comes from a variety of my supportive friends equines… luckily it grows back !
“I have discovered great delight working with gourds: an interest in Native American culture and my passion for horses affords me constant inspiration with my work”.
Tammy also works with high quality deerskin hides creating handmade leather pillows,throws and beautiful hand painted wall hangings embellished with assorted beads and deer antler buttons 

~~ the gift that is the horse will always be my inspiration ~~