Artwork from Domestic Gourdess reaches MTV

Artwork from the Domestic Gourdess -- a.k.a. stay-at-home mom Tracy Swartz of Lake Township -- made it to the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles.

Mrs. Swartz, 43, supplied 95 lady bug pins she made from gourd shells which feature rhinestones, microbeads, and other bling for celebrity swag bags that were distributed for two days before Sunday's event.

The pins retail for $10, and Mrs. Swartz's whimsical "Horace the Flying Pig" also was on display for celebrities to examine -- and hopefully pose with for the artist to use on her Web site, tracyswartz.com.

Such exposure should help Mrs. Swartz get her gourd artwork more into the public eye, she said.

Mrs. Swartz earlier this year joined indiExhibit, an organization representing independent artists in celebrity gift lounges, and the MTV awards show is the first event for her artwork.

"Who knows where this could go," said Mrs. Swartz, who as an indiExhibit artist pays for placing her artwork in celebrity swag bags.

Mrs. Swartz started working with gourds in 2005. She can use them whole, the seeds, just the skin, the stems, or any other way she can think of to create her art, which is sold on her Web site and at InProcess in the Woodville Mall in Northwood.

"I hate doing the same thing over and over again," Mrs. Swartz said. "There's so much you can do with them."

Gourd shells, rhinestones, and microbeads are used to craft a lady bug pin. The pins retail for $10. THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Typically she has done gourd figurines, but she has branched into lady bug pins and other small pieces, Mrs. Swartz said.

She used a power scroll saw and other tools to form lady bug bodies, then decorated them with bling.

"It started out I kind of used what I had on hand," Mrs. Swartz said.

She is supplying "roller derby chick" magnets for the Eastern Iowa Outback Roller Derby, too.

Figurine gourds come with a poem or story, and many are custom-order designs, Mrs. Swartz said. She has received orders from England and elsewhere, she said.

Mrs. Swartz does research on each subject before starting a figurine artwork, and the entire process takes six to eight weeks, said the mother of Ted, 12, and Beth, 10.

This year, Mrs. Swartz and her husband, Rex Swartz, who does scroll-saw art, plan to grow some of the gourds she uses. He may get into making gourd birdhouses, too, she said.