BREATHING LIFE INTO NATURE'S ART : AREA WOMAN CRAFTS GOURDS INTO KEEPSAKES.

Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Daily News Staff Writer

Nadiya Littlewarrior considers the hard-shell gourds she decorates as living, breathing objects that take on a life of their own. She calls them spirit vessels.

``Gourds are alive,'' said Littlewarrior, a Canyon Country resident who makes the colorful vessels for a living. ``They're all living beings and they grow into what they want to be, not what I want them to be.''

The gourds, which feature fanciful dolphins, birds and popular American Indian folklore heroes, have captured the attention of art lovers from the Antelope Valley to the Santa Clarita Valley and beyond. For the past two years, the Southwest Museum has been selling her artwork in its gift shop.

``It's very individualistic and it seems to spring from a special inspiration she has,'' said Jan Possun, manager of the museum's gift shop. ``Some of it's dream and some of it's traditional and she comes up with something very uniquely her own even though it's based on Native American culture.''

The gourds, which range in price from $10 to $200, come in fanciful shapes, sizes and colors. One features gold dolphins cavorting in a blue-and-turquoise sea. Another one shows gold, silver and emerald-green birds swooping through a rust-color sky while still another depicts Kokopelli, a symbol of fertility, frolicking under a starry night sky.

She also hand-paints rabbit pelts and makes medicine or journey wheels - painted gourds which depict the life cycle, from birth to death, with symbolic colors and animals.

Littlewarrior buys the gourds, part of the pumpkin and squash family, from farms in Temecula, Paso Robles and even Lombardi Ranch in Saugus. She decorates her creations with palm fronds and pine needles she finds in her neighborhood.

To make the leaves pliable, she soaks them in warm water for two to three hours, then gently weaves them onto the tops of gourds with waxed linen. Sometimes she adds decorative glass beads, feathers and stone animal figurines for a special touch.

``They make a wonderful, wild look,'' she said of black-and-white spotted peahen feathers that graced a buckskin-colored gourd.

Not all the gourds look alike. Some are burden baskets - hollowed-out gourds that can be used to carry items while others are gathering baskets, used to hold pine nuts or other odds and ends. Littlewarrior said some buyers use the gourds to store their safe deposit keys or jewelry.

It can take several days to create one gourd from start to finish, but she said the outcome is well worth the effort.

``You can't think in terms of work because you'll never get paid as much as your time is worth,'' she said. ``You have to follow your heart.''

A former record company executive, Littlewarrior says she gave up that stress-filled life four years ago when she learned how to make the gourds from a friend in Reseda. She's never looked back.

``I feel more comfortable with who I am,'' Littlewarrior said. ``I grew up learning (about art) from my mother's knee. Hopefully my art brings joy and love'' to the people who buy it.

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Photo: (ran in SAC and CONEJO--color in SAC) Nadiya Littlewarrior of Canyon Country makes burden and gathering baskets and painted pieces with American Indian themes from gourds.

Tom Mendoza/Daily News