OSiyo. (Hello, in Cherokee)
My name is Dianna George Batts.
I was born in NE Oklahoma into a family of Cherokee blood on my mothers side. I am very proud of my Cherokee heritage. God has blessed me with a loving husband, Chris. We’ve been married since 1973. (Our 50 year anniversary was in 2023). We have two adult children; Rick and Amanda. We have a beautiful granddaughter Grace E, who was born in 2013, and is the love of our lives.
I was introduced to gourds in 2001 by a dear friend who grew them at the back of his property in Indiana and gave me several of them. He said, ‘play with them and see what you can come up with’. It took me awhile but once I started, I haven’t been able to stop. Thanks Arbee (Ron).
Chris is a huge part of my gourd art because he helps with the design and color ideas. Being a licensed General Building Contractor since 1980, he has an ‘eye’ for color and gives me a lot of ideas and support. He grinds the insides of my gourds to smooth them, and designs and sets up my art show spaces. He also puts the large art pieces together for me. He is a great help with customers as well.
In March of 2006, I was diagnosed with Nasopharyngeal Cancer. After radiation and chemo treatments, gourd art became my therapy. All of my artwork is one of a kind, and there are no two items exactly alike. Over the years, I believe that I’ve improved my style, and some of the things I create, I wish I could keep for myself but both of my homes are full of my artwork. If you see anything that you like, please feel free to email me and together we can work on a great piece of art for you.
In February of 2025, we learned that the cancer had returned and I underwent three months of Proton Therapy (Radiation). In November, I have an MRI scheduled to see if the therapy took care of all of it. Hopefully the MRI will show no more tumors and they will tell me that I am cancerfree once again. God took care of me the first time, and he is taking care of me this time.
It has been awhile since I have set down to work on this website. Village Venture 2025 will be October 25th and I will be there again so I figured I’d better work on this site.
What I have shown on this site IS available for purchase unless marked sold. I have moved most of my sold pieces to a folder out of view but if you see any that have a SOLD on them, its because I haven’t moved them yet. Items not shown on this website will be available with everything shown here at Village Venture on Oct. 25th. I have not done very well keeping this site updated, but I try my best. I am not a web designer and keeping my websites up to date is not a simple task especially when I do it all myself.
I started doing art shows in 2002, except for 2006 when I was going thru radiation and chemo and in 2023 when we had travel issues and missed the event. I have been doing Village Venture since I started (2002) and for the last few years, its been the only art show that I’ve done each year. I’ve done other events but nothing as good as Village Venture. Again, it’s at The Village Venture in Claremont, California and its always one day only and on the last Saturday in October. This year its on October 25th (2025) from 9 AM til 5 PM, ONE DAY ONLY and its free to get in. It is in the area of Claremont Village and this year will be close to 400 juried vendors on the streets. Its closed to car traffic for the day but free parking is close by and plenty of shuttles. The vendors are all homemade/handmade art, no vendors can sell store bought, flea market or used items. All kinds of artwork will be available for sale so come prepared to do some shopping. I have some wonderfully loyal customers who visit me there every year. My space assignment will be #419, in the same area that I had last year, which will be on the north side of First Street between Indian Hill and Yale. (second booth from Yale and on the patio side of Espiau’s Restaurant.
My booth is Dianna’s Gourds N Crafts. In my booth you will find all kinds of gourd art, leather goods, jewelry, my published books, Grace’s published books and Grace’s bead work. (Grace is 12 and a published writer). Our items are Cherokee crafted.
I try very hard to keep my prices down but as it is with everything else, and with the cost of gourds and supplies, I have to at least cover my costs. On cash purchases, I don’t charge sales tax but on CREDIT CARD purchases, LA County requires me to charge 10.5% sales tax. For credit cards, I use Square. I don’t use Venmo. Even with the taxes on credit card purchases, my prices are still lower than other gourd art out there. At Village Venture, my prices are much less than they are online.
I have been working on an online store but I’m not sure that’s going to happen anytime soon as it seems to be throwing everything out of whack. I will keep you posted.
If you see something on this site that you like, let me know. If you have an idea for something, let me know and maybe I can create it for you. Just let me know what you like and what you are interested in. Each of my gourds are one of a kind, signed and dated on the bottom. I also make leather belt pouches for cell phones, leather shoulder purses and native necklaces and earrings. My books are on my website, https://www.diannasbooks.com and Grace’s books are there as well.
I hope you enjoy looking thru these pages of my gourds and crafts. I welcome your feedback. If you see anything that interests you, or just have a question, please email me at ninee9er@hotmail.com or post me a comment.
Most of all, thank you for visiting my website !
Wado ! (Thank you, in Cherokee)