Rosey Bolte

In 1986, Rosey Bolte’s father brought her a dried gourd from his Tipton County farm and suggested that she paint it. The gourd turned out to be the perfect canvas, and she was hooked.

Rosey added painting gourds to her already established craft of creating and painting wooden pins. She’s always loved painting in miniature, with detail, and began making pins when she realized that a 1.5-inch plate was the perfect size for her artwork.

Rosey puts her own special whimsical detail on each piece she creates. She designs birds, roosters, fish and many other figures on her gourds by sculpting Paperclay onto them. Each of her pins displays a complete painting on its tiny surface. She encircles each painting with a design and carefully paints tiny dots of color around the edge. For a finishing touch, she adds glass beads on sinew onto each of the pins and gourds.

Growing up as a Hoosier and spending most of her adult life in Brown County greatly impacts Rosey’s work. She’s inspired by other artists and her customers. Most of all, she is inspired by the beauty of Indiana she sees around her.

“In the summer, I am surrounded by the vivid colors of zinnias and daylilies that are around my art studio and the many songbirds flying and feeding at the bird feeders throughout the gardens,” she says. “And just beyond the flower gardens are the gourds growing into the many shapes I will soon craft and paint.”

Rosey applied to Indiana Artisan because she thought it would help her promote her art and her studio in Brown County, and she is ecstatic her work is part of the program.

“All the long hours working into the night have paid off!” she says.