©Timothy Moyers 1992
All Rights Reserved by The Gourd Reserve

Tim Moyers is a natural born artist.  At a young age he began drawing parrots, so detailed and accurate in their reproduction few could believe it, and even his parents made him redraw a parrot while they watched because they did not believe he had done this.  At that time he was 5 years old.

Since then, Tim has ventured into many aspects of art, from pen and pencil to acrylics, from sculpturing to controled anodization of titanium to achieve a rainbow of colors.  By the time Tim was old enough to attend college he had developed his own style, could paint and draw in acrylics, water colors, oil paints and pencil, he could sculpt distinguishable people out of clay in a very short period of time, so he decided to enroll in an art class in college.  Tims talents and techniques were so unique and so effective, many of the students approached him to ask him to teach them how to get the affects he was achieving.  I know this is hard to believe, but some professors and instructors really take offense at those who might have a better way of doing things, and Tim did not stay enrolled very long.

Tim really enjoyed working with gourds for a brief period of time during his ventures from one avenue to another in art, and still likes to dabble with gourds, however his latest adventure has been training from authentic Native Americans in atlatl, or spear throwing using one of those hand extension devices.  He is learning this process from beginning to end, from making the spears and the atlatl, to throwing them in competition.  Of course Tims Atlatl’s do not look like a piece of branch, some of his are beautifully adorned and artistically designed.  You know what they say, you can take the artist out of art, but you can’t take the art out of the artist!

Although Tim has battled many medical problems, and has experienced so many different adventures, he will never give up art as his primary interest and method of expression.  We are proud to say that Tim is a dear personal friend of ours, and hope he never gives up the gift.

Thank You Tim,

Dan Dunkin – The Gourd Reserve

Tim sadly passed away on May 14, 2024 R.I.P. Tim…

This chart presented for educational purposes

This Gourd ID chart was a labor of love.  If began by spending days of searching the internet for different lagenaria types, those already known by us and others that we know to be common varieties but needed an accurate representation for as well as searching several web sites and other known resources to acquire the mean or average size, height, or length of each gourd.  Once this information was gathered, a scale was determined for the purpose of making each variety as accurate as we possibly could in relation to its size when compared side by side with another.  The scale was determined and used for the first two pages to display the medium and large sized gourds at approximately 1 cm= 3 inches. If we used this same scale for the smaller gourds, the smallest ones would be difficult to give and accurate representation of that people would be able to see and appreciate, so the third page was done in a scale to approximately 1 cm= 1 inch, which gave us 3 pages representing 34 different varieties of hard shelled gourds. 

Digital chart © Dan Dunkin 2003

The Gourd Reserve.

Use of this chart by permission only

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Gourd ID Chart

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Once the scales were determined, using Paint Shop Pro, a separate graphical canvas was generated for each individual gourd, and each one was drawn using a mouse since I don’t own a digital art pad, each one was carefully depicted to scale, then shaded to give the appearance of shape.  Once each gourd was drawn and painted, the full scale pages were created and layer by layer each one was placed on the paper.  Many different layouts were tried to see what would have the best eye appeal, uniformity, and to make sure the page did not look top heavy.

The process in all took approximately 6 months as it was a digital art learning experience and required many hours of research and layout preparation in order to give the completed project its final look.  The Gourd Reserves charts have been displayed in gourd magazines, including Through the Gourdvine and The Gourd, a publication of the AGS.  When the chart was finished, we did print a few out and sold them at festivals and online, but when our photo printer died we ceased to sell them.  This chart is now available for free to website owners and local and national societies for the purpose of educating people in this fine hobby, and to help to establish a standardized naming system.  Many of the gourds shown on this ID chart have several names, we selected the most universally known name for each of the gourds.

Utilize this module to enhance your gourd-related projects and connect with others who share your passion. The ease of sharing ensures that Dan Dunkin’s and Timothy Moyers’ charts reach a broader audience, promoting the appreciation and understanding of gourd cultivation techniques.