Positively Gourdeous Gourds

“Never lose your sense of Wonder…”

Delos Nokleby

At 47 years of age Delos and his wife made a decision to move from Minnesota to Arizona to follow an inner calling for a new adventure and a desire to live life more simply and authentically. The desert was a NEW experience and a place where Delos immediately felt at HOME. It was here in the desert that his woodcarving background discovered a new medium to express itself - gourd art.

Prior to this, Delos had expressed his creativity in woods, massage therapy, woodcarving, perennial garden design, and cooking. Delos was a self taught woodcarver who longed for time to pursue his passion to create art. Honoring his creative nature and committing to giving his art time and energy, he quit his 9-5 job in 2007 to create Positively Gourdeous Gourd art and to pursue desert landscape design training along with Polarity Therapy training.

Delos has always enjoyed and appreciated working with his hands and woods.

He is a self taught artist and often works with symbols and metaphors, gathering his inspiration from the gourds themselves as well as from nature and other cultures and times. Growing up on a farm has given him an appreciation and deep connection to the earth and the natural elements.

Delos is particularly drawn to the gourd’s natural elements and this form’s unlimited possibilities for creativity... He draws free-hand designs, uses wood burning, dremel or hand carving tools, saws, and leather dyes, before applying a top coat to protect each gourd piece. Over the years Delos has come to recognize that what first appear as mistakes within the process of creating, are really opportunities for something new and unexpected to form.

May my Positively Gourdeous Gourds stir your own inner artist and remind you of the beauty and wonder all around us… Delos