Viernes Huevo: Cabeza Encogada

Buenos dias, amigos. A Dia de los Muertos egg for you today. I started with black outlines on a goose eggshell, then washed the egg back down to white with Ivory soap and a vinegar bath to etch it just a bit. then dyed it with the brightest and most contrasting colors because I wanted it to really pop!

¡Feliz Viernes!

Friday Egg: Allium Pops

A contemporary design again this week. I call this one "Allium Pops" because they look like lollipop flowers. I like the purple and reds together on this against the creamy yellow background. 

I am lucky enough to be taking a mosaic class from Dianne Sonnenberg. Check out her amazing mirrored mosaic eggs. I would love to try that sometime! I have some ideas percolating in my brain for eggs and series of eggs, but give me another week or so: I'm having a lot of fun experimenting with mosaics!

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: Catherine Wheel

I feel like COLOR today! This design is based on a wagon wheel design from Japanese Chiyogami paper. I have done this design before in grays, black and white (see it here) but it has been a while. I recently sold the emu egg version I did of this egg...

and felt like revisiting the design. Using bright colors changes the meaning and feeling of the wagon wheel design, making it festive and fun, spinning and twirling. It reminded me of the mental image I got when I was reading a book as a child and they talked about a Catherine Wheel. 

So I present to you my version of a Catherine Wheel! Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: 1980

Got your OP corduroy board shorts? How about your jacket with a rainbow stripe?  Get it together because we are going on a journey to 1980, a time of rainbows, seagulls and Roller Boogie!

This was an egg that came up when I was working on some round geometric rainbow designs, similar to the Rainbow Brite egg I posted a while back.  I started with gold and worked my way through orange, green, red, blue and purple and then etched the eggshell back to white with vinegar. The black is a bit dull or faded looking to me, but I think it will revive a bit once I put varnish on. I try to take the photos without varnish so I don't get eye-burning hotspots to distract from the design. Perhaps once I varnish I will do a quick update photo shoot. I thought it would be interesting to work on more organic silhouettes using the same idea of repeated lines creating an interesting pattern. Definitely not a traditional design this week. I thought it would be interesting to work on more organic silhouettes using the same idea of repeated lines creating an interesting pattern. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions of an egg you would like to see done in this style. Unicorns?

Happy Friday! And happy skating.

Friday Egg: Pink Spider Chrysanthemum

Friday Egg today is a Pink Spider Chrysanthemum design. The colors on this are non-traditional, though the scarf design is based on the traditional sakvy (saddlebags) design. If you are paying attention, you might notice that it is the same basic design as my "Like Holding Hands" egg I showed a few weeks ago - this is a fun design for me! One of my favorite parts of this design is the elongated diamond shapes on the scarf. It just adds a more contemporary feel to the normally traditional design. I love the Barbie pink (Lily Rose from Pysanky Showcase) and Golden Wheat against the brown background. And for added interest, the texture of the goose egg really shows through on the background layer. All in all a fun egg to make and a fun egg to look at!

Happy Friday!

West Austin Studio Tour!

Just a quick notification: the West Austin Studio Tour is this weekend and next, April 27th and 28th and May 4th and 5th and I have a few pieces at a gallery that is on the tour. Swing by and take a look! I'm at Dragonfly Gallery at 4007 Marathon Blvd, just a parallel block west of Lamar across from the Central Market. Look for Stop #58 in the catalog or at the website:

http://west.bigmedium.org/index.html

Friday Egg: Etched Turtle Pair

Today's Friday Egg is a design you have seen before, but this time I started with a brown chicken egg. There are two turtles, one on each side, playfully chasing each other around the egg. I like the soothing greens and blues paired with the natural brown of the chicken egg.

First I applied wax to cover the brown of the eggshell, Then I etched the eggshell in a vinegar bath to reveal the white eggshell just underneath the brown layer and added wax to those areas where I wanted it to stay white. Then I did the same process through Key Lime and Turquoise and finally dyed the egg Black.