On holiday in the American south, John Ingall discovered that one of the local crops was being turned into remarkable works of art. So he went home, grew his own gourds and set about transforming them – and himself

It was while touring Mississippi in an old RV that John Ingall and his wife, Jane, first spotted the plant that would change their lives: the hardshell gourd, a plump, squash-like fruit with a thick, woody skin. After that, they saw them almost everywhere they went: carved gourds in porches, hanging gourds, gourds reimagined as lanterns and bird boxes. “I developed an interest,” Ingall says.

Ingall, 74, worked for 45 years as a farmer, but had never seen fruit turned into art before, nor considered himself in the least bit artistic. “I was so involved with farming, I didn’t have time to be. But I thought, ‘I’ll try it.’”