Calabash bowls and spoons are carved from fruits that grow from a crawling plant, quite like squash, pumpkin and water melon. However, the calabash friut is not edible (eventhough it is not poisonous) because it tastes very bitter. Some people call the fruits "calabash fruits", while others refer to these fruits as gourds.
The fruits grow in various shapes and sizes: round and small, round and medium, round and large, and tadpole-shaped.
Traditionally, calabash bowls and calabash spoons are used in West Africa by the Fulani and the Bura ethnic groups for serving food and drinks. Some women would use large calabashes for carrying goods to and from the markets. Big calabashes are also used as music instruments by Hausa and Bura musicians in northern Nigeria.
Today, calabash bowls and spoons are used mainly as decorative artifacts, especially by Africans in the diaspora to create African accents in their homes.
A calabash bowl is carved out of a ripe calabash fruit by cutting the ripe fruit into two equal parts. The seeds and the veins in the fruit are thoroughly scooped out from bowl, and the fresh calabash bowl is left to dry. When it is dry, a woman who is skilled in engraving decorative patterns on the back of calabashes will apply either shea butter or peanut oil on the back of the calabash bowl and engrave decorative patterns with knives that are continuously heated in burning charcoal.
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