Friday, May 13, 2011

Friday Egg: Pink Polka Dotted Elephant


A pink elephant with terra cotta polka dots comes to visit today!  This was a pretty simple design, but it to f.o.r.e.v.e.r to finish because this is a duck egg, and duck eggs are very particular about what colors they want to be dyed.  Duck eggs usually come with an oily sort of cuticle on the outside of the eggshell, which can be soaked off in a vinegar bath.  Once that is off, the egg can be treated much like a chicken egg but sometimes for no reason that I can discern it just stops taking on dye.  The only way to recharge to egg is to give it another long vinegar bath and let it dry for at least a day.  But I got it done!  

I started with a plain white duck egg, drew on the white design and then dyed the egg yellow several times but it never took, so I gave it a bath and a rest and tried again with Nutmeg, which ended up producing this lovely terra cotta color.  next was Lily Rose (a bright Barbie pink) and then Peacock Blue and finally Black.







If you are interested in purchasing this egg, click on this link.  If you are interested in looking at it, you can hang out here!

Happy Friday!