Friday, October 13, 2006 11:17 PM CDT
Local woman finds artistic talent in gourds
Creative all her life, Michelle Faires finds a way to satisfy artistic crave, subdue illness
By BONNIE CLARK, Features Writer
bclark@jg-tc.com
Before decorating gourds became her art of choice, Charleston native Michelle Faires used to find ways to release her pent-up artistic energy wherever she could.
“As a kid, I did a lot of arty things,” she said. “I’d build things, and decorate my doll houses, design and make clothes, and paint, even though I’m not a very good painter -- I still paint at a third-grade level.
“When I got older, I would do mosaics on the bathroom wall... whatever art projects I could find.”
Then a couple of dried gourds, given to Faires by a friend, provided her with a medium for her artistic abilities.
“Typically, when you see gourd art, the gourds are made into bird houses, or painted like Santa Claus,” she said. “Mine are very different.
“The first thing I ever made was a little pot. I drilled holes in the top and wound copper wire around it. Then I burned some geometric designs on it with a woodburner.
“That’s how I started, with a woodburner,” she said. “I burned ivy on the second one.”
Today’s gourds range from small carved pots, vases and lamps, some with leaf designs, to detailed, carved gourds with turquoise inlays.
Her many designs include a tree of life and a four-seasons design that she said are her two best sellers.
Faires estimates she has finished 400 gourds in the five years she has been working on them.
After the first year, however, she was diagnosed with a nerve disorder called trigeminal neuralgia. It came on suddenly and slowed her work.
“The trigeminal is the largest nerve in your head,” she explained. What has happened is that I have a blood vessel resting against that nerve and it causes really bad pain in the top of my head and through my ear and down my jaw.
“It came on suddenly, and they don’t really have a cause. They say it could be anything from being born that way, to being in an accident.”
While it isn’t fatal, she said, it is sometimes called the suicide disease because of the sudden, intense and debilitating pain.
Faires likened the pain to “100 times worse than the pain you get behind your eye when you’re eating ice cream. That’s what it’s like except I get it through my ear and down my jaw on the top of my head instead of behind my eye.”
While a daily regimen of taking pills helps keep the disorder manageable, it doesn’t provide a cure.
The jabs of pain may only last a few seconds, but there can be 200 of them in a row, Faires said. “So, I have good days and bad days.”
Working on her gourds a couple of hours a day on the good days provides a “good outlet for me,” she said. “And, when I’m having a bad day, I don’t work at all.”
Faires’ gourds are shown in several fine art galleries on the East Coast, where the gourds are usually shown in the wood or sculpture categories, she said.
In addition, she teaches a gourd art class at Lake Land College. She and her husband, J.B. Faires, live in Charleston, where they both grew up.
Faires works on the gourds in her 12-foot by 12-foot cellar workshop. She has about 16 feet of counter space where she has a carving station and a dye station.
“I try to keep everything as natural as possible,” she said. “I use leather dye and some all natural dyes made out of berries.”
Some of the designs are carved through, others go just deep enough to shade.
She seldom uses the woodburning tool any more, working instead with a high-powered rotary tool, Dremel and miniature cross saw.
Faires’ work ranges in price from $40 to $650.
“The $650 prices are for gourds that are usually large and very intricate, and might have turquoise inlays,” she said. “The $40 gourds are smaller (ones) with more simple designs.
“An average size piece -- probably the $100 to $120 piece -- is what I sell the most, and I would say it takes from 12 to 20 hours to make. It’s a slow process.”
Contact Bonnie Clark at bclark@jg-tc.com or 348-5727.
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 Ken Trevarthan (JG/T-C)
Charleston artist Michelle Faires demonstrates the carving process at the workbench in her 12-foot by 12-foot cellar workshop.
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