This article is part of
Wilderness Way
VOLUME 15, ISSUE 1.
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Sig Nubla:
How to Make a Usable Bowl
from an Ornamental Gourd
by Christopher Nyerges
Sig Nubla showed me a beautiful bowl made from one half of an ornamental gourd. It was completely functional for eating his meals, and also a stunning work of art. I could hardly believe that it had been crafted from the hand of man. Symmetrical black lines and designs had been painstakingly burned into the gourd’s surface. After my careful examination, I asked, “How long did this take you?”
“About an hour to cut the gourd and clean and sand it,” he said, “and maybe another five hours to make the designs.”
He spoke as if it was a little thing, but Nubla is a modest man who seems to master whatever he touches. He grew up in the Philippines in Manila where he learned many of the survival skills of hunting, shelter, wild foods, and crafts. At an early age, he took most of these skills for granted. He came to the U.S. when he was 19-years-old. Now at 38-years-old, he throws himself into whatever project he is undertaking— whether it is weaving, bow-making, or creating useful and beautiful gourds and bowls.
I assisted Nubla at one of his gourd-making classes held earlier this year in California’s Sequoia Forest at the annual Dirttime event.
Nubla is the kind of teacher we all wish we had when we were growing up, eager to answer any question (no question is too stupid) and always right there to lend a hand when we are having difficulties.
Once
each student selected a gourd, the first order of business
was to cut off about one half, usually the top of the gourd.
Nubla had each student lay the gourd sideways on the table,
with a box set right next to the gourd. The student would
hold a pencil horizontal on the top of the box and roll the
gourd in order to draw the line where the gourd would be
cut. This was a lot more difficult than it sounds. If you
did not have any special tools, you could then just score
the pencil line, and continue scoring deeper and deeper with
a knife or a sharp rock until the two halves separated.
However,
this was not an entirely primitive event, and students used
hack-saws to make good clean cuts—even though all the cuts
were not all that clean and even.
Some students saved the seeds for planting later.
Then came the sanding. The edge had to be filed and sanded to make it smooth and just right. The outside was sanded to make it all smooth, and the inside was carefully scraped to make an even surface. The filing and sanding was done using files and sandpaper, but Nubla pointed out that flat pieces of sandstone would do just as well, though it would take slightly longer.
The edge of Nubla’s bowl had a little indent where he could easily hold his gourd with his thumb, or use the indent to rest his chopsticks.
Once gourds are cut, cleaned, and the edges sanded or filed, they are functional. However, Nubla had his students decorate the bowls. The decoration served at least two purposes. It allowed students to learn the art of woodburning, and it made each bowl individually recognizable in a camp with dozens of similar bowls.
Using little nails stuck into pieces of doweling, the students heated the nails in the fire and began their artistic decorations. Though there are endless possibilities, Nubla showed students how to divide the bowl with three or four horizontal lines, and then further divide the working surface into quarters with four vertical lines. With the outer surface of the gourd thus divided, it would be much easier to burn symmetrical patterns onto the surface of the gourds. Nubla calls this “geo-metric pyrography.”
At some classes, Nubla brings an electric woodburner for convenience and speed.
Finally, Nubla had each student then “leach” the gourd bowl by filling it with water, leave it for up to 12 hours, repeat and do this until there is no more bitterness inside the bowl. Sometimes, he coats the inside with olive oil, or maybe beeswax.
Most of the students fully completed their gourd bowl in two to four hours and they used their bowl for all their meals during the week. And the artistic touch that Nubla had people add to their gourds turned out to be akin to the mnemonic devices used by pre-literate people. At each meal, people admired each other’s gourds, and commented on the different symbols and lines on each gourd. No two were alike, and each now carried a story.
Nubla teaches at the annual Winter Count, Rabbit Stick, and
Dirttime events, and can be reached via e-mail at coach@nursetutor.com 