Friday Egg: Unplanned vacation

Sorry, but no Friday Egg today.  This week I worked on three commissioned eggs and so had no extra time to spend on a Friday Egg.  Also, I spent part of the day looking at some illuminated manuscripts like this:

and other amazing works of art at the Harry Ransom Center.  If you ever have the chance to visit this amazing treasure trove you should.  So full of amazing art, literature and objects associated with the artists and writers that you wouldn't be able to see it all in one lifetime.

I'm sorry there's no egg, but follow the link above and peruse their holdings for a while.  You are sure to find something amazing!

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: Great Tragedy

I post a lot of my successful efforts and a few of my "maybe" eggs, but I have never posted a complete disaster.  I had one happen today so I thought I would take some photos so you could join me in my mourning over what would have been a lovely egg.

This egg cracked after I put it in the warm oven to melt the wax off to reveal the final design.  This happens sometimes when I do too much etching of the shell, either through dyeing or straight vinegar etching.  The shell simply gets too thin and the pressure of wiping melted wax off is enough to poke a hole right through.  And this is what happened to this lovely blue poppy egg.  I started with a brown chicken eggshell, etched it down to white, dyed and waxed through yellow, green, blue, jade green and then etched it again down to white.  I think there may have been one other etching with vinegar somewhere in the middle because of blotchiness on the eggshell.  Just too much eggshell removed and so this happened.  It would have been pretty.

One interesting thing to note is the inner shell. You can see how the pores of the eggshell allowed the blue dye inside: look for the blue polka dots. This porosity can be a problem when working with lots of layers because the dye that is inside the eggshell sometimes can be pushed out the same pores when the eggshell is warmed in your hand.  The only way I know how to prevent this is to let the eggshell dry out for at least a day before working on it again.

Interview on local station

Did an interview this morning with Bettie Cross of KEYE-TV about Pysanky and here it is! I think it turned out okay.  It was nerve wracking!

Good Friday Egg: and Earth Day, too!

Happy Good Friday to everyone today!  Looks like another busy Easter weekend for me:  I have a TV interview with KEYE scheduled for 9 a.m. today (if you are in Austin, look for it on their 4 to 5 p.m. news show!), one demonstration today at the Neill-Cochran House for their annual Egg-Dye-O-Rama from noon to 4 p.m. and then my Artworks sale and demonstration on Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.  I hope that you can make it out to one or the other (or both!)  And of course, family is coming from out of town and we are hosting Easter dinner at our house - lots of cleaning to do!

Friday Egg today is a red egg.  Red eggs are an Eastern European Easter tradition.  Here's my take:

If your are interested in buying this egg, I listed it in my Etsy shop:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/72737290/stylized-flames-red-and-scarlet-pysanky

Happy Friday and Happy Easter!

Any plans for Good Friday?

Here's where I will be:

Neill-Cochran House Museum for the Egg-Dye-O-Rama! It is a fun event (and free) - we spend the day decorating eggs in all kinds of ways and then they are all given to the kids staying at the Dell Children's Museum over Easter. They do ask that you call to make a reservation to ensure that there are enough eggshells for everyone.

And if you've never seen the house, it is just beautiful.  Take a look at the flickr gallery.

 I can't think of a better way to spend a Friday afternoon! 

Delish.com!

One of my eggs is featured on Delish.com today!

But when do you put on the decal?

My friend Lydia has seen pictures of these eggs for several months finally asked me, "Is it ink or paint?" When I am doing shows, many people ask me if these are stickers or decals or if I have a stencil I use to put the designs on.  I realize that I should post a general idea of how these beautiful eggs are made.  No ink or paint, no stencils or shortcuts, each one of these eggs are created using a batik process with beeswax and dyes.  I prepared the following presentation for my Christmas show.  It plays on continuous loop on an eframe.  Sometimes it is easier to show than tell, and with this tutorial (which I borrowed from a tutorial I posted last year), I am able to explain the process with pictures.  So without further ado:  Here's how I make these eggs!

 

There is no step three!  I mis-numbered these steps and skipped the number three, but I hope you can ignore my error and move right on to Step Four: