Friday Egg: Red Pineapple

A stylized floral pattern, reminiscent of a pineapple flower adorns this lovely little chicken egg. The back ground color is PUSA Patina, just a quick dip to make a lovely azure blue to contrast and complement the hot pink and magenta of the pineapple flower. The green ferns are along to keep it company. 

This piece found a home in December, so I hope that the person who owns is enjoying a little tropical moment of this chilly January day.

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: Purple Clematis

A highly stylized clematis vine, climbing and twisting and reaching upward to the sky. 

I wrote out the process and divided it into steps so you could understand more clearly the process of layering that I go through to produce one of these pieces.

Step 1: I penciled in the equator, then the longitude and latitude lines and the halves of those lines, ending up with a grid. Then Ipenciled in a line where these lines connected that spirals up the egg. Once I have the basic geometry drawn in, then I can see where I am going and how to get there.

Step 2: I started waxing on a brown chicken egg, as you can see from the outlines of the vine and flowers. 

Step 3: After waxing, I etched the egg in vinegar to remove the brown outer layer and expose the lighter inner layer. 

Step 4: I then dipped the egg in UGS Light Blue and waxed the outer blue line of the leaf.

Step 5: Next I dipped the egg in PUSA Patina and waxed the second slightly more green line on the inner portion of the leaf. 

Step 6: I dipped again in PUSA Patina for a longer time than I normally would in order to get the dark green inner color of the leaves. 

Step 7: In order to ensure a bright and clear color, I washed the dye off with soap and water.

Step 8: I etched the surface again in vinegar to make the egg ready for more dyeing. 

Step 9: Now it was time for UGS Purple. I waxed the outer line of the petal.

Step 10: Then I rinsed the egg under running water to get just some of the dye off the eggshell, leaving enough so I could achieve a lighter purple color and waxed that inner line of the flower petal. 

Step 10: Finally, I washed the egg back down to the light creamy shell color and allowed the egg to rest for a few days. I like to give the egg time to dry out from all the processing it has been through. The heat of the oven can turn the moisture of all the dyeing and waxing that is in the eggshell to steam and cause seepage from the pores that shows as random white blobs. Sometimes I like that effect but sometimes I want to have a bit more control over the final design. If you look closely in the lightest part of the purple petals you can see dots of the blue-green color. Similar to what happens in the oven, the warmth of my hand as I hold and work on the egg heats the air inside the eggshell which forces the dye back out through the pores. I like that this eggshell added it's own signature to the piece.

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!

Friday Egg: Carousel

I'm baaaaaack! It's been a while! I've been out for summer break, traveling and dealing with a house renovation and the nuisances that come with it. But I'm back at the kistka as of Monday and really excited to be working on some new ideas.

This is a chicken eggshell done in bright and festive colors that reminded me of a circus carousel, just like the one we rode this summer at Valley Fair in Minnesota!

Friday Egg: Latent Beginnings

Today's Friday Egg is an extra special offering for you. This piece is called "Latent Beginnings" has been chosen to be in the People's Gallery Exhibition at the Austin City Hall. I deliver it later on this afternoon and the opening reception (to which you are all invited!) is on Friday, February 27th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at City Hall, 301 W. 2nd Street, Austin, TX 78701.

Here's the description of the piece that I wrote to describe the piece when I entered: "Latent Beginnings" represents the clockwork intensity of the seed underground, packed with all the blueprints and tools it need to eventually build a towering tree that reaches the sky."

I hope you are able to come out for the reception in February so you can see this work in person, as well as many other works of art by other talented Austin-area artists.

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: Hot Blazes

I present to you a free-flowing floral goose egg pysanky today. The pink and orange flowers remind me of fireworks with trailing green tails.

Happy Friday!