Friday Egg: Butterfly Tree

A beautiful blue egg swathed in lacy tendrils - it's a butterfly tree.

I started with an egg dyed Asparagus and waxed in all the stems and leaves.  After I washed it down to white with Ivory dish soap, I dyed the egg Golden Yellow for the leaves and the butterflies.  There are two lighter yellow butterflies just for fun - maybe they aren't ripe yet?  The final color is Peacock Blue.

Friday Egg: Captain America!

Doesn't this look like I should be posting it on Independence Day?  It's the egg that Captain America would have on his mantel if he collected eggs.

It is deceptively simple, but takes a lot of prep work with a pencil to make sure that the lines are parallel and even.  One of these days I will do a tutorial on the pencil guidelines for each kind of egg so you can see what goes into it.

I was trying to use rich holiday colors, but was tired of the usual red and green.  Not sure if I succeeded in making it a Christmas holiday egg, but if you need a Fourth of July egg this is it!

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: Cosmos on Blue

Today's egg is a lovely blueish-purple color with my variation of the traditional sakvy design.  Scarves of traditional diamonds are encircled by white and yellow cosmos.

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: California Poppy

I love California poppies.  My mom has them in her spring garden and they are such an eye-catching neon orange that they are impossible to resist.  The Friday Egg this week is a goose egg sized tribute.  I did a little bit with gilding which I don't think adds too much to the egg, but you can tell me what you think.

Friday Egg: Etched Brown Egg

This is such an intricate little egg:  I'm secretly tickled to make such an intricate and delicate design with a brown egg because they are so rustic and utilitarian that the rose design is doubly stunning.

I started my first layer on the brown egg, then etched the shell down to white using regular white vinegar full strength. It usually takes about 20 minutes for the shell to etch down to cream.  After the etching bath I scrub it in running water with a baby toothbrush to clean it up and make sure all the dissolved shell is washed away.  I dipped it in Avocado dye and drew in some details with wax, then dipped in Peacock Blue for the next layer of detail.  Finally, I washed off as much of the blue dye as I could and then etched again to a creamy white.  I listed it on Etsy today, so go visit if you are interested:  http://www.etsy.com/listing/75338890/etched-and-dyed-brown-chicken-egg

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.

Friday Egg: Aqua, Cream and Brown Traditional Pysanky

Today's egg is an etched brown chicken egg.  I love the dark brown of the eggshell.  It really stands out against the cream of the undershell.  The aqua is such a pretty retro color, and the combination of brown and blue is one of my favorites.

I started with a brown egg and waxed all the lines that show brown in the finished egg.  After all the areas were waxed, I etched the egg in full-strength vinegar until I achieved a light cream color.  I dipped the egg in aqua and waxed those areas.  I think I would do a slightly lighter aqua next time, but it is so hard to tell color intensity when the brown is covered with wax.  After I waxed the aqua areas, I dipped the egg in vinegar again to remove all traces of color and get to the lightest cream color.

Enjoy your Friday Egg!

Check out this amazing chunk of ice!  We had a cup on the back porch that had a few inches of water in it and it froze last week.  It looks like one of those beautiful glass paperweights with the encased design.  Or a sea anemone under water.  It was just gorgeous and I still have it in my freezer.  I guess it will stay there until it sublimates.

Friday Egg: Traditional Scarlet Poppy

I'm busily getting ready for the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar, which starts next Wednesday.  I have to be ready to load in by Monday, so I have only three days left to get everything sorted both for the booth.

So the Friday Egg today is short on words and long on pictures, but I think that's what you like anyway, right?

This poppy egg was started on a white goose egg and went through the traditional steps of light to dark.  I really like the orange tips on the petals and scarlet inner petals.  One mistake that turned out interesting was the black spots on the petals - that was me being in a hurry and not covering all the areas with wax so that the final dye bath of black got on those parts of the flower. I think it adds some interest and texture, so will have to figure out a way to incorporate that idea in future eggs.

The poppy is a popular motif in traditional pysanky.  It is the national flower of the Ukraine. I personally enjoy it because it is fun to draw.  The flowers has a definite structure, but within that structure I can make a lot of different choices.  The petals can be ruffled or straight-edged.  I can do one solid color or choose different colors like in this egg.  I can do a straight-on view of a flat poppy or a side view. I also like playing with buds and seed pods.

Hope you enjoy it!

I will be taking the rest of the year off unless I get a wild hair and post another egg.  Most likely I will be too busy with the Armadillo to get back to this until the new year