My varnishing set-up

I completed a couple of eggs for my usual Friday Egg schedule, but I ended up having to varnish them instead of taking "boudoir photos" of the eggs.  I can only put varnish on when the weather is clear and dry and it has been raining here for what seems like weeks! So here we are in my dark and dreary garage workroom, where I will show you how I put varnish on eggs.

I have really struggled with this step in the process. The problem is getting a smooth coat of varnish on a round surface.  I tried using the drying board with nails that various Pysanky egg suppliers sell, but that never worked because the egg would stick to the nail tips and either a bit of varnish or a bit of the eggshell itself would break off! Not good. Spray varnish is another way to go, and it is okay, but I am not patient and end up with drips and dribbles because I spray far too heavy of a coat instead of lots of thin ones.  Plus I found that it is much more expensive as well as wasteful.

Now I use varnish out of a can (Liquitex or Golden MSA) and apply it with a fan brush, which allows a bit thinner coating.  To keep the eggshell supported without touching it, I use lengths of floral wire inside the original hole from blowing out the egg contents. I insert the wire into blocks of floral styrofoam or a block of styrofoam mailing popcorn.

Here I am using my drying board to support the egg while I varnish it.

 I start with the egg vertical and brush varnish on the top and sides.  Then I flip it over and get the bottom part of the egg.  Finally, I brush from bottom to top on all sides until I feel that I have gotten good and even coverage.

As much as I can, I try to keep the coats light because I don't monitor for drips and hate getting a dried up bump at the bottom that I have to sand off or cut off with an X-acto blade.  One good thing about using the floral wire is that extra varnish will often drip down and off the egg completely.

Here's the egg stuck into styrofoam and ready to dry out:

Oh, and one last thing:  DON'T USE WATER-BASED VARNISH!!!  I learned the hard way when the guy at the hardware store steered me wrong.  Just make sure it is the one with health hazard warnings all over the can and you will be safe.  You might not be healthy, but you will be safe in knowing you are using the right varnish.

If you have any tips or ideas that you think might make this process easier, I would love to hear them.

Gilded Egg

We arrived back home from Santa Fe yesterday, and I have some great ideas for new egg designs that surprisingly have not much to do with either Southwestern or Native American traditions.

We always try to get a visit in to Ten Thousand Waves after a day of skiing.  I would like to go every day, but it gets a bit expensive.  This time we enjoyed 85 minutes in the "Waterfall" tub, which is a marvelously large tub with a bench and jets on one side and a deep end that goes to at least 4 feet at the other end.  There is a cold plunge with a waterfall to jump in when the hot tub gets to be too much, and a dry sauna for variety. I felt like a boiled noodle at the end - it was great fun!

The spa is inspired by Japanese baths, so everything is spare and considered and simple.  The gift shop is full of candles and tea sets and gorgeous little ceramic bibelot.  Among all that, I found a well-thumbed copy of a book called "Traditional Kimono Silks" by Anita Yasuda.  The book is basically a  photo album of kimono fabric scraps, so visually inspiring, though edited sloppily with mislabeled pictures throughout - very disappointing.  However, it has furthered my thinking about trying to keep the rhythm of a design or pattern while managing to free it from a rigid grid or framework.   More of this in the weeks to come...

In addition, I started thinking about using a bit of gilding to pick out some highlights in the eggs. Today I dug out my glue and gold leaf to see what I could do to enhance a finished design.  The picture above shows the finished product.  I used Mona Lisa Products sizing and leaf, that I got ages ago at Hobby Lobby.

To start, I put tiny dots of the glue/sizing where I wanted the gold to be:

The difficult part of this is waiting for the glue to get tacky, which takes about an hour, without accidentally smearing it. 

Once the glue is tacky rather than wet it's time to put the gold leaf on.  It gets kind of messy, and I need to figure out a better way to keep the sheets smooth so that they go on smoothly.  It looks "okay" when it is wrinkled, but much better and more professional when smooth.

I used a large paintbrush...

to smooth the gold leaf over the adhesive...

What do you think?  I am of two minds about this.  I love gold and glitter as much as the next person (probably more), but it does have a tendency to make something look cheaper somehow.  Plus, I want to avoid looking like I am trying to make Faberge style eggs.

Here's another one that I glitzed up:

Friday Egg

Friday Egg this week is an example of one of my "window" eggs.  Etched pretty heavily on a goose egg for some texture as well as color.  I started with Pysanky Showcase Golden Brown for the outline color, then took it back down to white, through all the colors to black, then took it back down to white for the final color.  I hope you enjoy it.

Best Kistka

I have used several brands of electric kistka over the years and my personal opinion is that the best one is from Wax Art Supply.

This brand was designed by a mechanical engineer and it really shows!  The tips provide a consistent wax line that rarely skips or clogs up.  They have a great selection of tip sizes from extra heavy to triple extra fine. The tips I have used the most are the fine, double extra fine, medium and heavy.  It has tremendously helped my artwork as I can now get all those lovely and amazing details that are in my head onto the egg.  In addition to the different tip sizes, you can also buy either a fixed tip or an interchangeable tip that has a small screw that holds the tip tight.  As a testament to how great these tools are, I used my grandmother's Wax Art Supply interchangeable tip kistka that she got sometime in the 80's (it could even have been the 70's!) until it finally died last year in 2009 - that's at least 20 years.

Please take a look at them if you are in the market for an electric kistka.  I know you will be happy.

Friday Egg

I am trying to fit this in during JoJo's naptime. She is having a rough week and home sick today with a fever and fussiness.  Perhaps teething.

To business:  I have a more contemporary Friday Egg today.  Stylized poppies on a pink background.  I am feeling the need to create more Springtime themed eggs for my upcoming trunk show and Easter shows.  I like the raspberry fluff shade of pink.

Here's a close up.  I don't think you can see, but the surface was etched a bit to add another dimension.

You can tell just a bit by the thin red outline on the shapes.  That is actually the vertical "wall" made by etching in vinegar.  Since dark red was my last color before I rinsed it down to make the raspberry fluff color, the etched egg picked up that color and it makes an interesting effect, I think.

Thanks for looking!

Folk Art Chandelier

I found an amazing paper chandelier at the website for the Polish Art Center. Just take a look at the marvelousness (is that a word?) that is the chandelier.  They are called Pajaki, which literally means "spiders of straw."  It looks like a God's Eye base decorated with colorful cut paper flowers. Don't you agree that on a rainy day this would be a cheerful to look at?

I believe that this one is my favorite:

From what they say on the website, this is yet another folk art tradition that is dying out.

I would love to hear about other folk art traditions that you know of that other people might never have heard of.  Links to photos would be great!

Friday Egg

Ha! You didn't think I would get to this today but I did! I am posting an egg I completed a few weeks ago. This is basically a traditional egg with poppy motif, but the geometry is a bit more contemporary. There are four windows, and the poppy design is a bit different in each one. Take a look:

It is as yet unvarnished, but I think it will look pretty once the shiny layer goes on. It does a lot to bring out the colors - the red and green are going to pop!

I have it here on a new stand I ordered.  I'm not sure whether I like it or not.  I think that it becomes less about the art and more about the contraption:

What do you think?