Gourds are related to the squash family but when the gourd dries it leaves a hard shell. The insides dry out and can be scraped and cleaned out if you want to open it up and make a vessel to hold things inside. I love to batik designs on the outside with wax and dyes. I paint designs with liquid wax and then dye the gourd. After dying the gourd I buff the wax off which leaves those areas the natural light gourd color. Many times after that I use a wood burning tool to mark designs on the natural gourd color.