The gourd bottle

I've always wanted a gourd-shaped bottle!!!

A lavender coloured gourd bottle depicting Japanese kanji for protection and balance, english text for Zebeth, and pink cords wrapped around it for carrying.

A lavender gourd shaped water bottle, with several stickers depicting a gourd knot, protection, and merchant, as well as a tiny pen, notepad, and an ornate bell hanging from a beaded strap, and the gourd is wrapped in pink cording.

The gourd water bottle, with the shoulder strap lightly wrapped around the bottle, on Kabutroid's work table.

Kabutroid, herself wearing a pink top, wearing the gourd bottle at her side.

The unboxed gourd bottle, that comes with black shoulder and gourd wrap cords, stickers, a chime bell that I ordered extra, all sitting on Kabutroid's work table.

Several of the english stickers in the process of being made with black paint on clear adhesive sheet, with the paint palette and bottle nearby.

The three strand braid attached around the bottle, while the four strand cord is beginning to be braided beside, the start of it held with vice grip pliers to keep from unravelling.

A closeup of the forever pen, a tiny nib of a pen less than an inch long, already covered in shrink wrap and attached to the pink cord, sitting on its box for forever pen, world's tiniest.

Oh wow, I have always wanted a gourd water bottle! Like for years and years, I've always wanted one. I had a mate gourd cup at one point (I need to get another one, my original didn't make it to England, lost in the mail or somethin'), but that was at least a taste of that style. And with the ol' mate gourd missing, that yearning was returning. Several weeks before this showed up, I'd even been considering buying like... a hollowed out dried gourd online, but was worried about cracking, mold, how long it would last, and so on. But it was on my mind.

And then this showed up. Just days before my birthday, my social media feeds were swamped with ads for this gourd bottle by Enjoy Gourd (Enjoy-Gourd). And it's like... it's kismet, it's meant to be. This was to be my birthday present to myself. And so, looking around the site, I went with the thermos-style bottle for hot-drink carrying, and a threaded top for fall protection. And it was on sale for black friday, so ayyyy, added bonus! And so taking in the available colours, we went with lavender, and waited...

It didn't take long, and it's everything I dreamed! No, it's not natural gourd, but this won't crack, is threaded capped, and will last for ages! And, on testing, keeps tea piping hot for 12 hours plus! But it needed to be decorated. The photos online had so many different decorative styles shown, I needed to personalise mine. Stickers! It came with a big sheet of stickers, which I had debated which to affix to the bottle. What won out was the three yellow banners that, as best Meta AI can translate, say "zǐ wēi dà dì shén xíng yuán yáng fú", meaning "Talisman of the Supreme Emperor of the Purple Star, Divine Action of Primordial Yang", a Taoist protective talisman for spiritual protection and energy balance. Given I'm a witch (also one of the english words on the bottle) and The Eagle who Flies through the Heaven, that works out perfectly. It also gives me 3 vertical texts to compliment with english words, choosing Zebeth, Witch, Merchant, and Prosper, to make for a lucky 7 words. On the top, I put the large gourd knot sticker, which compliments the bottom well. And then we needed straps, as I wanted something other than the regular black cording.

Pink paracord to compliment! We removed the core from some of the paracord to make a flat braid to tightly wrap around the center of the gourd, the same to go through the cap, and a single strand to loosely connect them (being well loose enough to unscrew the lid). Attaching the "bell of cloudy sonance", which I ordered as well, I added a few strands of that pink paracord through the strap for that, strengthened the bottom-most ring connecting the bell with the 11 pound fishing line, and attached that more or less permanently to the central strap. I also added a connecting loop to tie the shoulder strap through, a four strand full paracord round braid, which matched in size nicely to the original shoulder strap. And it chimes with such a wonderful little chime, to go well with my merchant bell.

But I wasn't done yet. I had one other vision in my mind for it... SEVERAL things hanging from the gourd! The nerd in me saw a teeeensy little pen, and tiny little waterproof notepad to go with it. And so we ordered a Forever Pen (WorldsTiniest), and set about making a tiny little notepad similar to the Rosary book. But, since I only want the bell to be making sound, I put some heatshrink tubing around the pen, as well as the rings of the notepad (which was a bit of a fight but we got it). And with all of the components ready, we finalized the length of the cord (which I also attached with a larks head knot for easy movability to the other side), melt-sealed the ends, and added a few dots of glue under them for one added little bit of security.

And with that, completion! The swiss army gourd/utility gourd/chatelaine gourd (ok that last one is a stretch) came out amazing and I am happy. And right before Christmas too, a birthday present finished in time for the holidays Smiley face

Finished December 24, 2025