Friday Egg: "Translucency"

I enjoyed every part of creating this piece. A lovely plain and simple etched egg but with a giant hole cut into the eggshell, revealing the internal play of light and shadow. The etching is the most important part of this piece, as the light is blocked more by the thicker areas of eggshell so that the pattern can emerge internally. This first photo shows a good amount of the etching and a hint of the shadows inside, but if you go a couple of photos down you can more clearly see what is visible when you look inside. It reminds of sugar Easter eggs with scenes inside. And I'm tickled that it almost looks like and actual egg, with the white surrounding the darker yolk. This was a tough one for me to photograph and I would recommend that you see it in person if you can.

Which brings me to some timely news: you will soon have the opportunity if you want to see this work in person because the East Austin Studio Tour is approaching soon, Saturday and Sunday, November 12 - 13th, 19 - 20th from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. all four days. I'm stop #75 on the tour. For more information on the tour or to find out where my studio is, go to http://east.bigmedium.org/.

I'd love to show you this and all my other new work (I have some fun 2D work that I've been playing with!), so please come on by if you can.

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: Species of Water

Today's piece is called "Species of Water." The blues remind me of the varied shades of blue and green you see in different kinds of water: ocean, lake, ice, deep and shallow. These chicken eggshells were injected with dye and allowed to sit and think for a few days. I then cut teardrop shapes into the eggshells using a diamond wheel on my Dremel. This was definitely the hardest part and I lost about a third of the eggshells that I started with.  I then carefully arranged the eggshells in different configurations until I found the one most pleasing and attached them to the white framework. I love looking at the various colors inside of each eggshell. I find it interesting that some eggs allowed the dye to migrate through the pores to the outer shell while others kept it completely inside.

Just a note: eggshell dust is hazardous to breathe, so if you are ever tempted to cut into an eggshell with a Dremel, use a dustbox or cut outside and wear a paint project respirator with filters for vapor/paint/dust. If you smell eggshell dust then you are breathing it in and you don't want to do that.

Happy Friday!