Lagenaria is a well-known plant of the pumpkin family, which is cultivated in a tropical and subtropical climate. India, Africa and Central Asia are considered the birthplace of the Lagenaria. This pumpkin is known to man since ancient times. Due to the fact that the pumpkin was used for the manufacture of dishes, it received its second name - dish pumpkin. It is also known as gourd, bottle gourd, Vietnamese zucchini, Indian cucumber and saucer zucchini.
However, lagenaria is not only suitable for the manufacture of dishes, it is also a very tasty vegetable. Eat green pumpkin fruits, as well as apical shoots and young leaves. Lagenaria fruits in large quantities contain magnesium, iron, carbohydrates, calcium and vitamins of groups B, PP, A and C. In addition to everything else, the vegetable contains an impressive amount of pectin. It is recommended to eat with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system. And besides, the fruits contain substances that have a pronounced antitumor effect. 
Lagenariya is a hypoallergenic dietary product that is the basis of nutrition for children exposed to allergic reactions. Also, its systematic intake has a positive effect on the course of diseases of the cardiovascular system, liver, kidneys, and bladder. Pumpkin pulp helps to normalize the metabolism and helps cleanse the body of cholesterol.
What a pumpkin is suitable for creating crafts
Not all fruits of lagenaria can be used for the manufacture of handicrafts. By choosing a vegetable should be approached responsibly. Before you start making your design dream a reality, you need to prepare a pumpkin in a special way. For the manufacture of handicrafts grown varieties with uniform color and expressive forms.
For crafts choose Lagenariya without damage and signs of rot. Do not use for drying specimens that have even the smallest traces of mold or rot. In addition, only vegetables with a stem should be used, since its absence will affect the quality of drying and will become the main cause of the violation of technology, which will not allow obtaining the desired harvesting.
When choosing a pumpkin, preference should be given to hard, not too large fruits. The thing is that no matter how hard you try, you cannot dry a giant-sized vegetable at home.
How to dry lagenariya
Those who are going to start making pumpkin figures often wonder: "How to dry lagenariya for handicrafts quickly?". The main difference between ordinary pumpkin and lagenaria is in the thickness of the peel, and consequently, in the rate of drying. Drying an ordinary pumpkin will take from several months to six months, while you will spend at least a year on drying lagenaria.
Did you know? The fact is that in nature there are processes that simply cannot be accelerated: the drying of the pumpkin will continue until all the moisture leaves it through the pores located on the peduncle. This is the most effective way.
You can find many options for drying vegetables. Some tell us how to dry a pumpkin for crafts in the oven, convection oven or microwave. However, this will already be a baked vegetable, and it is much more reasonable to simply eat it, since it will not be stored for a long time.From the foregoing, it is clear that the only possible option for drying lagenarii for the manufacture of handicrafts is to leave the vegetable alone, but only in the right place.
How to dry a pumpkin right on the plant
Crafts are made only from well-dried lagenaria. To dry a pumpkin, simply leave it on the vine on which it grew. Mature fruits can survive frost and even two or more cycles of thawing and freezing. When the vine turns brown and dies, the fruits growing on it will dry out and disappear.
In the event that the pumpkin does not have time to dry before the end of the season, it can be left on the vine for the whole winter. And in the spring, after the snow has melted, the process of drying the fruits will continue. However, during the drying of lagenaria on the vine in winter there is a high probability that the fruit will be affected by rot.
Important! If you decide not to leave the pumpkin on the street, then in no case do not tear it from the vine, but carefully cut it: the secret is that through the torn peduncle the moisture will evaporate much more slowly.
Determine the degree of drying of pumpkins is very simple: dry fruits are empty inside. Just shake the fruit and listen: if you hear a seed hitting the inside of a pumpkin, it means it dried out. Sometimes it is impossible to check the degree of drying of the lagenarii in this way due to the fact that while drying the seeds stuck to its walls.After the fruits are completely dry, carefully cut them and put them in the room.
How to dry the collected fruit
Lagenariya bottle can be used for the manufacture of crafts only when it is completely dry. If the leaves and vine of the pumpkin become brown, this is a sure signal to gather fruit. To cut the pumpkin you need to use a sharp pruner, which will allow to form an even neat cut. For each vegetable, leave a piece of stem with a length of at least 5 centimeters. The peduncle will need a pumpkin to drain moisture, as it has a dense and virtually pore-free skin.
If there are immature soft fruits on the vine, it is better to remove them immediately and use them as a temporary decoration, since you still will not be able to dry them properly. Sometimes such specimens are left to spend the winter on the vine. And if the master is lucky, then freezing will benefit them and help to dry completely.
After you bring the fruit into the house, wash it thoroughly with soap, it will kill the bacteria and prevent the fruit from rotting.
Also, before drying, you can soak the pumpkin for 20 minutes in a solution of bleach and water in the ratio of 1 to 9. At the next stage, the fruits are placed for drying on a wooden platform so that they do not touch each other, which will help to improve air circulation between them.
Did you know? If an unheated room is chosen for drying, remember that repeated freezing and thawing can damage the seeds and make them unsuitable for planting.Pumpkins can be dried in the garage, house or shed, but optimal conditions for drying will provide only an open space with good air circulation. If drying pumpkins will occur in a residential building, this may create some discomfort for its inhabitants, since the drying fruits emit an unpleasant smell.
During drying, you will have to systematically inspect vegetables for rot, all damaged fruit must be ruthlessly removed. On average, about 5, or even 10% of pumpkins you throw away.
Important! When drying pumpkins, it is necessary to distinguish mold from rot. In the first case, the fruits remain hard and only become covered with a gray-green bloom, which can be removed by wiping them with a cloth or simply washing them with water. It is impossible to remove the rot from the pumpkin, since its appearance is evidenced by the formation of soft spots that are easily pressed through.During drying, the fruit is inverted every two weeks, which ensures their uniform drying.
How to dry lagenariyu (decorative pumpkin) at home
If you only need to dry a few pumpkins, you can tie a string around their cuttings and hang the fruit on the tree. You can also hang a pumpkin on the hedge, which will give your yard an unusual look. Some masters make holes at the end of the pumpkin and pass ropes through them. However, injury to the skin of the fruit can lead to infection of the pulp of lagenaria mold or rot. If for you the integrity of the fruit is not fundamental, then making holes in them will significantly speed up the drying process.
Slow way
Handmade pumpkin crafts can only be done if you properly dry the fruit. However, drying lagenarii is a very long process that repeatedly checks your nerves for strength. There are many ways to dry pumpkin. However, the most effective is a natural way, based on the gradual removal of moisture from the lagenaria through the pores of the stem.
After harvesting, the fruits selected for drying must be thoroughly cleaned with laundry soap, then wipe dry and wait until the moisture from their surface evaporates completely. Then we put a pumpkin in a light, but inaccessible for direct sunlight and a well-ventilated room, balcony or loggia. Leave the fruit to dry for one week, periodically checking them for the presence of rot. After the outer layer of the peel dries well, remove the fruit in a dark place (at least under the bed). The drying process can be considered complete when the fruits become light, and inside them you will hear the sound of rolling seeds.
Quick way
After removing the pumpkins from the bed, wash and dry them thoroughly. Then place in a well ventilated place for two, and better for three weeks. After the peel of the lagenarii dries well, gently scrape the upper layer with the blunt side of the knife. This procedure will help to open the pores, which will contribute to its drying as quickly as possible. After scraping, it is necessary to put the lagenarium in a warm (but not hot!) Well-ventilated room. During drying, do not forget to turn the pumpkin every 3 days, which will contribute to its uniform and rapid drying.
What happens if dry lagenariya wrong
Non-observance of the basic rules of drying lagenarii will lead to the fact that the fruits lose their decorative qualities. If drying the pumpkin happens too quickly, this can cause wrinkling, and slowing down the process, on the contrary, will cause infection with rot. It is also very often observed deformation of the fetus, if not systematically carried out turning the pumpkin. Damaged fruits are prone to rot infection, in which case they become soft and they are simply thrown away.
How to decorate lagenariya, exploring options
A variety of shapes and a wide range of colors allow you to use a pumpkin for making a variety of handicrafts. There is a huge variety of options for how to make crafts from pumpkins, ranging from the most simple ones, for example, lagenarii murals with a marker, and ending with pumpkin decoration with the most complex openwork carving.
Let's start with the simplest. Smooth and smooth surface of the pumpkin, you can paint with markers without much effort, turning it into an owl, bun, and even an alien. As a more complicated option, you can paint the surface of a pumpkin with a can of paint from a can, and then simply transfer the drawing from the napkin to it using the decoupage technique.
In addition, you can make any animal out of lagenaria and other natural materials by cutting out missing elements on the body of a pumpkin with a sharp and thin knife.
Turning Lagenariya into a true work of art will help you possession of the carving technique, thanks to which the fruits can become original decorative objects, for example, carved garden lanterns.
An interesting option is to make goose in apples from lagenarii: an odd job will not take long, as the fruit is very similar in shape to this bird.
Using paints or varnishes
If you look closely at the fruit, even its very shape and color can tell you exactly what kind of crafts to make from a pumpkin. The processing of dried lagenaria is no different from the processing of wood. The fruit can be planed, sawed, cut on it with chisel patterns, file processed, drilled with a drill, and then painted, painted or varnished. However, there is no consensus among masters regarding the application of paint and varnish coatings to the surface of a pumpkin. Many are categorically opposed to coating lagenaria with paint or varnish. And there are those who believe that this is a mandatory operation, as it prolongs the life of the product and increases its aesthetic appeal. To cover a pumpkin with varnish or not is a personal matter of each master, since there is no prohibition on carrying out this manipulation.
Features of burning on Lagenaria
If you planted lagenarium on your plot and are thinking about options how to make crafts with it yourself, then remember that burning is one of the easiest ways to turn a pumpkin into a real masterpiece. Burning on the surface of lagenariya is no different from burning on a tree. The only significant difference is that when burning on wood, the master works mostly with even surfaces, and the pumpkin has a spherical shape.
Application
Another popular method of making various handicrafts from pumpkin fruits is to apply appliqués or quilling on its surface. Applications can be made of fabric or colored paper. The use of quilling technique based on the twisting of strips of paper and their further sticking to the lagenariya will help to produce amazing works of art. The only drawback of applying an application on the fruit is that it will not have to use ordinary PVA, but “Moment” glue. Decorate the fruit will also help decoupage technique, based on decorating surfaces torn or cut out the image, which is then glued to the surface of the workpiece and coated with varnish.
Examples of crafts from lagenarii
Here are some examples of how to decorate lagenaria. 
Charming vase from lagenarii, made using decoupage technique. 
If you have the desire and skills of woodcarving, then the pumpkin will be able to create the most real works of art. 
No less charming is the burning on the surface of the lagenaria. 
And you can also make these charming lamps from the fruits of lagenariya yourself, if you set yourself a goal.
