Dry scrubbing a gourd requires a gourd to sit for a lengthy
period of time, and at some point during the course of the curing
process, you make a decision to either clean the mold off, or let
it remain to create a mold mottled effect on the final dry gourd.
Green cleaning is normally done before this molding process begins,
and oven drying is a technique we’ve suggested here in this
booklet. Through experimentation, we’ve discovered a technique
that yields the light patches of shell on a gourd, that normally
comes from green cleaning, but not only includes the mottling effect
of the mold, but actually increasing the contrast between the two
by using oven heat to deepen the molding effect.
For this effect, you must set your gourd out to begin the
drying process, as if you were going to let it dry completely, but
keep an eye on it. You want the mold to begin to grow, in fact,
you want to let it culture well, but you also want to clean the
gourd before ALL the green is gone. For our gourds, we like the
effect we get with gourds that have more of the round spotted molds
covering most of the gourd, with a few small area’s or patches
that are still green. The green area’s of the gourd will remain
light, and will not darken, even with oven temperatures around 200
degrees F. For the most part, using a chore boy copper scrubber,
most of the skin will come off the molded area’s quite easily,
since the skin is still damp, and the mold is holding the moisture
at the surface level, but the green patches may require using the
backside of a knife as you would in green cleaning. Remember, you
can lightly use the chore boy over the green area to insure there
is no residual skin remaining.