Archive for Embellished Ostrich Eggs

Ultimate Easter Eggs -2

Ostrich Egg embellished with buttons and beadsIn this second posting on decorated ostrich eggs, this first piece is called “Sea Egg”. The top side had had a small crack in the top, so the man who gave me the eggs had cut an oval shape out of it. While embellishing this egg, I thought of Bella Isola in Lake Maggiore in the north of Italy. One of the memories that stands out the most for me from visiting that beautiful palace is the grotto room downstairs that is encrusted with thousands of sea shells. In tribute to the beauty of the palace, which had been built as a wedding present, I dedicated my much smaller scale version of a sea egg.

The focal point for me was a motif of aqua lace glued near the bottom of the opening. It had tendrils dangling from it that reminded me of sea weed. I also found some great metal buttons of starfish, and after cutting off the shanks, added them to the composition. The entire egg (about 7″ or 18 cm tall) is glued onto a horn bracelet, which is then glued into a margarita glass that had a blue and green rim that reminded me of the sea.

Inside of decorated ostrich egg - "Sea Egg", embellished with buttons and beadsIn this view of the inside of the egg, I had to make the outside over exposed in order for you to see some of the embellishments. With the aid of long forceps used to put small plants into terraiums, I used E-600 glue to secure the buttons and beads into place. That often meant holding the button, especially on the sides, for several minutes until the glue had dried enough to hold. Some people have asked why go to so much effort, when most people won’t see the inside. As a child, I remember reading about how the ancient Greeks had finished off the backs of their statues as well as they had the fronts, even though they would be placed against temple walls and no one would see them. The concept was that these sculptures were being made for the gods, and while I do not put myself into the same category, I like the concept of completing work in places where no one will see it. It’s as if that area is a secret between me and my muses, much as the ancient cave artists who went deep into caves to compose their wall paintings that few people would see at the time.

"Artifacts Egg" -  an ostrich egg embellished with buttons, beads, and pieces of ostrich shellsThis piece is named “Artifacts Egg”. In the previous posting, I mentioned about how poorly packed ostrich eggs are when shipped from farms here in the States. Since I had a number of small, cracked pieces, I scribbled on them as if they were pottery shards from an ancient civilization of my own creating. I added on some more of my buttons and beads to complete the composition, and then glued the entire egg into a tall 4′ or 122 cm candle holder. The top of the holder had splayed leaves, which I thought would make a great counterpart to the oval egg. The trouble was getting the glue in the right places on the metal holder, so that the egg would stay centered and stay upright. The base of the pole that holds up the egg is a bit wobbly, so I’ve weighted it down to prevent flying cats from sending the whole sculpture crashing to the floor.

Detail of "Artifacts Egg" -  an ostrich egg embellished with buttons, beads, and pieces of ostrich shellsIf you look to the bottom and left of this detail pic, you can see some of the shards I was talking about. I used an ultra fine sharpie pen and doodled on the shell fragments. You can also see on the left just how thick the actual shell can be by looking at the edges of the pieces. There was one point early on as a child that I thought being an archeologist would be the coolest profession… sort of like a continual Easter egg hunt. It was later in life that I learned about what hard and dirty work it is, and mostly out in the blazing sun. I content myself these days to making my own artifacts, where I can control the environment and not have to hike to get my materials.

Ostrich Egg embellished with buttons, beads, and silk flowersThis last egg was an attempt of mine to make some that would be affordable. I was going after the wedding market, and thought that these eggs would make great centerpieces for reception tables. I bought a number of pottery vases and then proceded to decorate the eggs. However, at $75 US retail was about as much as I would be able to charge, and that meant that I would be working at way below the minimum wage.

Top of ostrich egg embellished with buttons, beads, and silk flowersThis view of the top of the egg, which I thought was the angle that would be the most seen, shows the hundreds of buttons, beads, and silk and ribbon flowers that I glued onto the egg’s surface. Each one had to be glued, and held in place for about a minute for it to set until the next one could be added. I love the “wedding cake” look of this egg, and I hope that some day, it will grace a wedding as it was intended to do.

Much has been written about Faberge’s enameled eggs, created for Czar Nicholas of Russia to give to family members, but another egg artist, Mitzi Perdue, is  from my home state of Maryland, USA. She was married to the “Chicken King” of Maryland’s eastern shore, Frank Perdue. She had a back injury for a year and thought that it would be nice to be “The Egg Lady” and developed a natural interest decortaing eggs, given that there were so many in the family business. Her sculpted eggs and sea shells are a delight, so do check out the link above.

Have you used unusual materials in your works of art?

Why not tell us about them and leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you and how you’re being creative!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.

Ultimate Easter Eggs -1

Ostrich egg embellished with buttons and beadsThis posting today is about some of my other artistic pursuits besides art quilts. I loved to decorate Easter eggs as a child. There was especially something magical about drawing a design on the egg with a clear crayon and watching as those areas did not take the dye. So my first introduction to wax resist, batik like dyeing methods was with colored dye tablets and smelly vinegar.

Later in life, I dated a man for a short time who was importing ostrich eggs from Ghana as a way to set up cottage industries there. He wanted me to decorate some of the eggs as a prototype for designs that could be replicated in Africa. The relationship quickly fell apart, and since I was no longer under any constraints to make something replicable for people in Africa, my fascination with ostrich eggs began.

View 2 - Ostrich egg embellished with buttons and beads - "Baroque Egg"There’s something fun about having such a large “canvas” to work on compared to regular sized hen eggs. Here is another view of my first attempt – “Baroque Egg”. It sits in a large, metal spoked basket decorated with dragonflies. The surface of the egg was painted with gold paint, and then multiple layers of gel medium was painted on to decorate the surface and to attach the feathers and other ephemera that I added to the surface. The yellow, ringed circle with a red diagonal line through it in the bottom and middle right of the upper picture and the lower right of the second pic were cut from an old silk tie. (I find my materials where I can and whatever amuses me.)

It takes about a day for each layer of the gilded paint and gel medium to dry, but when I was pleased with the surface, I then began with embellishing the surface with buttons and beads. Any with shanks had to have them cut off, and some had to have the remaining protrusions filed away to make them flat enough on the back to glue on. I used E-6000 glue, which is readily available in hobby and craft stores. While smelly, it does a great job of securely fastening on the embellishments.

" Volcano egg" - an ostrich egg embellished with buttons and beads“Volcano Egg” is so named because of the broken crack in the upper part of the egg. Even when eggs are ordered from an ostrich company here in the States, they don’t pack them well, and as much as a third will arrive broken and cracked. This one, with the jagged protrusion from one side looked to me as if something had erupted from the inside, breaking free, just like a volcano. There is a strip of silvery, woven ribbon coming out of the opening. Red buttons and gold buttons to suggest lava on all the sides. Most of these additions are encrusted around the opening, as if they had cooled before flowing down to the bottom of the egg. This egg was glued at the base of a metal candle holder. Since this egg sits on a table near a fountain, the moisture in the air has given the metal base a lovely rusty patina that I couldn’t have planned on.

Detail of " Volcano egg" - an ostrich egg embellished with buttons and beadsThis second pic shows a slightly closer view of the egg and the deep dark recess of the inner hole inside. That hole is lined with lots of shiny red and gold buttons and beads, but you would have to look inside to see the encrusted surface. It was with a great deal of difficulty, using long forceps that are used for placing plants in terrariums, that I was able to glue the embellishments where I wanted them. Sometimes, that meant sitting there, with forceps in hand, holding the bead in place until the glue had dried enough to make sure that it would stay.  I like to think of this egg as if it’s a bird made geode, where you won’t see all of its beauty until you look inside.

Here in the Baltimore, MD – USA area, there’s a tradition of playing “crackies” with your dyed Easter eggs. Children would take an egg and tap against an opponent’s egg, hoping that the other one would crack. I think that the winner got some of the candy from the opponent’s Easter basket. I imagine that with factory raised eggs today, that would be very hard to play, as the shells tend to be much thinner now than long ago. However, anybody that used an ostrich egg would be sure to be a winner, as the shells are about .25″ or 3mm thick. However, having spent all the time decorating these eggs, I know that I’ll never play “crackies” with them.

Do you have any experiences with decorating eggs or a similar medium that’s not one of the usual materials ?

Why not leave a comment as to your thoughts on this posting. Please take a minute, fill out the form by clicking on the “comments/no comments link” at the top of the posting, and then share your ideas with the rest of us. We all grow when we share our thoughts and impressions, so why not join our growing community of those who appreciate art quilts and textile arts. We’d love to hear from you!

You can see more of my art work on my web site at www.fiberfantasies.com

To find out how to buy my art work, please check out “How to Buy my Art Work” in the “Pages” section to the right of this blog.