Friday Egg: Ring Around the Rosie

A new design today for Friday Egg. I came up with this when I was penciling in a traditional Sakvy (saddlebags) design.  Instead of dividing the sections I just decided to let one flower bouquet lead into the next.  A touch of gilding at the centers of the pink and white flowers adds a perky accent, especially against the black background.

Happy Friday!

Friday Egg: Colorful Exotic Bird

This week's egg is a downcast exotic bird of some kind sitting on a fern-like tree.  I like the repetition of horizontal elements: in the fern and in the eternity band encircling each bird. Everything is stretched out and elongated which gives a dynamic feel to the usually more static traditional elements. The colors are unusual for this one too: hot pink, red, green and a deep yellow on a brown background.  It worked out nicely I think!  I hope you like it!

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!

Friday Egg: Giant Graphic Flower Attack!

Today's egg is based on the idea of a spirograph. Do you remember those from childhood?  I really loved making designs with my spirograph.  I would love to play with one right now, as a matter of fact.  It might help me come up with some cool designs.  But I managed to come up with this design on my own. It is a very bright, very graphic flower on all four sides, top and bottom of the egg.

I love the orange in this flower!  Orange is the most difficult color because for some reason the dyes are very short-lived.  If I mix up a batch of Orange, Carrot or Pumpkin it will be bright and vibrant for maybe two weeks, but will sadly lose its potency.  I mixed up some new dyes and have been using all my oranges while I can take advantage of them!

The color combination of pink and orange is a favorite of mine.  It seems to evoke a feeling of fun, youth, joy and optimism.

I hope you enjoy your fun, youthful, joyous and optimistic Friday Egg!

Friday Egg: Purple Rose

Friday Egg today is a traditional rose or star motif in purple and pink.  I was hoping that the colors would be a bit more vibrant, but the eggshell was just not picking up the colors the way I would like. I have been needing to refresh my dyes for a while and this shows why.  The colors lose vibrancy and get grainy looking and the coverage can be spotty and uneven.  I usually can make my dyes last for a very long time by adding a dash of white vinegar when they start to lose strength, but there comes a time when that just won't cut it anymore.  I have my distilled water, dyes and jars all ready to go, now I just need to find an extra hour in the day to mix them up.  Maybe Saturday night (don't be jealous of my glamorous life).

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!