Lola Stude was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States with her family in 1952. After finishing her schooling in Colorado, she moved to New Mexico. Lola became hooked on gourds when she purchased Sue Hollon’s first two volumes of Gourds for All Seasons. Unable to locate commercial gourd growers in New Mexico, Lola decided to grow her own gourds. Her first seed packets were purchased at the local nursery and hardware stores, but the resulting harvest was a complete surprise, since most of the gourds did not resemble the pictures on the seed packets. Not appreciating hybrid surprises in those days, Lola began buying “true” seeds from well-known gourd growers who advertised in The Journal of the American Gourd Society. After discovering John K. Stacy’s Gourd Artists Guild website, she has met many other “gourdaholics” like herself that has developed into a marvelous learning experience. Lola creates both realistic and whimsical gourds, intact or cut as bowls and vessels. She especially enjoys sculpting clay onto gourds to make people or animals. To see some of Lola’s artwork, please go to http://community.webshots.com/user/lhstude.