SEDGWICK—The note on her door asks visitors to be patient—it could take her several minutes to get there after they ring.

But the medical conditions that have made life’s simple tasks difficult for Debbie Arnold have not stopped her from creating art that has traveled the world.

The custom gourd art that Arnold produces in her home at the Benjamin River Apartments has been purchased by residents of each of the 50 states, she says, as well as Japan, England, Germany, Australia and several other countries. Her work is featured at galleries and fairs throughout Maine. Locally, her work is available at Pineflower Gifts in Brooklin and the Union River Gallery in Ellsworth, and is shown annually at the Bay School Winter Faire in Blue Hill.

Through a long process, Arnold transforms gourds into bowls, vases, masks and other objects, each with designs burned into the shell and colored with leather dyes that, unlike paint, allow the natural patterns of the gourd to show through.

Arnold first created gourd art, known by gourd artists and collectors as "Mother Nature’s pottery," about six years ago. For about the same amount of time, she has sold her artwork to galleries and shops, doing business as "Oh My Gourd."

Her introduction to gourd art came from an artist friend who arrived one day with a painted gourd in the form of a seal’s head and two plain dried gourds. Setting one of the unadorned gourds in front of Arnold, her friend said, "Make something."

While her friend proceeded to paint intricate and colorful designs on a gourd, Arnold halfheartedly poked holes in her gourd with a wood-burning tool. To her surprise, the random poking created a pleasing lace effect on the gourd.

Arnold then grabbed some shoe polish and washed it over her design, declaring "I’m done." She set the gourd on a shelf and forgot about it until a few days later, when friends visiting from Rhode Island told her they loved it and offered her $30 for it.

Soon afterwards she sold a similar piece, and that prompted her to reconsider her nonchalant attitude about gourd art.

"I started doing a lot of investigating," she said. "I learned a lot about dyes." And she started producing and marketing her art.

Some were displayed at a Native American crafts store in Ellsworth. An Apache trader who saw her work there went to see Arnold and agreed to sell rattles and bowls she had made. The items sold exceedingly well, and Arnold started doing craft shows.

She often stood outside the Union River Gallery admiring the work on display and telling herself the gallery would never be interested in her work. Wrong. Although Arnold never took her work to Union River, someone who had purchased one of her creations did. Arnold then received a letter from the gallery owner asking to represent Arnold. Her work has been in the gallery ever since.

Initially, Arnold tried to grow her own gourds. Although she was able to grow them to desired sizes, the walls of the gourds were not thick enough to sustain the work she wanted to do on them.

To her surprise, she discovered gourd catalogs. Today, she buys all her gourds from Missouri. She has to order a year in advance to keep up her supply because of the long process involved in going from gourd to art.

"To do gourds you really have to become addicted to it," she said. "You have to be called to it."

You also have to be patient.

Gourds are 90 percent water and dry from the inside out, creating a heavy mold on the outside. Each gourd takes from six months to a year to dry.

When a gourd has dried, the first thing Arnold does, ironically, is soak it in soapy water to remove the mold. Then it has to dry again for at least a day before it can be cut open. After that the insides are scooped out and the inside is sanded.

And then—guess what—it’s washed again. And then it dries some more, and then it’s ready for decoration.

"You’ve got to be dedicated," Arnold said. "The true gourder will come through. Others may do one or two pieces, then walk."

While the work can be tedious for anyone, it’s especially difficult for Arnold, who suffers from Lymphadema, a painful condition that causes her arms to swell to twice their normal size. She also has suffered from heart and lung ailments that kept her on an oxygen machine for 16 months, and she is currently consulting with doctors about possible hip replacement surgery.

Friends have found a clever way to help Arnold prepare the groundwork for her art. Her friends throw surprise parties at which guests discover the surprise after dinner: dried gourds that need to be cut open and scooped out. The surprise is usually greeted with a lot of good-natured moaning and groaning, but people keep coming back, Arnold said.

The so-called "quiet parties" usually cater to eight or 10 guests who manage to prepare 60 to 70 gourds in a night.