What to do with a design you love?

I love water lillys and drew out this design the other day while sitting in the doctor's waiting room.    Now the question is:  What will I do with it.  It looked great the way it was, but who wants to look at just a pencil drawing?  So, my choices were:     

1. 
   
   dye it using pysanky dyes
2. 
   
   carve it in relief
3. 
   
   paint it
4. 
   
   bead it
5. 
   
   scrimshaw

 How about doing a series and do one egg in each choice?

It may take me a while to complete the series, so keep checking in for result.  I was planning on submitting a "Mother's Day Egg" for a pysanky egg group, so I decided this would be the design to submit. 

This is an ostrich egg.  Normally, one would submerse the whole egg to complete the dying process when doing pysanky.  I decided I wanted more control on shading, so I combined the painting and dying process into one.

To decide upon the colors that I wanted to use, I took a broken piece of ostrich shell and painted small swatches on it using colors that might make good combinations.Using Colorama dyes and soft grip brushes  from PysankyUSA.com, I started painting the dye onto the Lilly.  I used #10 Cotton Candy as my base color and outlined and shadowed with #29 Raspberry.  It looks pretty flat - not dimensional, but it was time to put the flower side of it to bed and work on the leaves.  Once done with the leaves, I can go back and highlight the flower.

Ok, there are two different types of leaves on this egg:  the lilly pads and water reeds, so it is best to not use the same colors on them.  Once again, I placed color swatches on scrap shell so I could find a color combination that I liked. 

The lilly pad has a base color of #1 Shamrock and is shaded in #11 Dark Forest.  I also used #11 Dark Forest to outline the leaves.  The reeds need to be more subdued, so I chose #15 Granny Smith.  I shadowed and outlined with my all time favorite Colorama green #4 Asparagas.  I really liked the effect.

It's time to hightlight both the flowers and the leaves.  One color looks great washed over all the base colors that I've chosen.....#40 Sun Yellow.  If you look at Pink Water Lillys, you will notice that they do have yellow in them, so this seems to be a perfect match.  I posted this picture in a larger format so you can see the yellow better as photos are never the same as how the eye sees it.

The browns that I used for the spent Lilly stamen are #24 Mushroom and #25 Nubian Brown. 

I then went back over the flower and darkened my shadows more. 

The stamen is #40 Sun Yellow, with brush strokes of #33 Temple Orange.

You can see the completed work for the stamen in the larger photo.

The final colors are for the water.  This was the hardest decision, as there are some many beautiful blues, aquas, and greens in the Colorama dyes.

I headed back to my scrap shell and painted out my color swatches and decided on #3 Aquamarine and #16 Ice Blue.  I'm glad I have several different sizes of the soft grip brushes from PysankyUSA.com.  I could opt to use regular paint brushes, but feel it is best to have a separate set of brushes designated only for pysanky dyes.  These brushes are great to use!

I also used #38 Dolphin Grey to paint vein lines on the flower petals.

All in All - - I love the results.  The pictures do not show the final varnished egg.  I will post the final egg at the end of my series, with all the different lillys.

Please visit Jim's website for your pysanky, and Drop/Pull needs at

PysankyUSA.com

I thought I'd share a little silliness with you all about entering eggs in the Masters Program through the International Egg Art Guild.


This is an incomplete list of Do-s and Don'ts, Happiness and Frustrations that occur when you put alot of pressure upon yourself.  I'm sure I will add more folly later.  I can laugh about all of these now, knowing that I've learned something... .

Pysanky:
1. (FYI- I keep my wax melted in a tart warmer)....Don' t watch a suspenseful/ scary movie when doing pysanky. If you jump out of your skin, you might knock the melted wax over onto the floor where it hardens into a large black splop on your hardwood floor. (Aaargh..... ..that's the pirate in me!)
2. Always keep a pastry scraper and Goo Gone on hand. The scraper will gently scrape the wax from the floor without scratching the hardwood. Goo Gone cleans up any remaining wax and then everything looks like normal when dear Hubby walks in the door; therefore avoiding the "I told you so-s"......( hee hee)
3. When washing your eggs off that have a plug in the hole.....don' t use overly warm water. The air warms inside the egg....expanding. ......pop. .....the side blows out. (I always wanted that egg for doing a diorama instead)
4. If you have cuts on your hands, wear gloves when using vinegar or "The Works" or you will be yelling "Owie, Owie, Owie". On the good side......they won't get infected as they will be soooo clean!

Filigree:
1. If your carving area is in the garage and it's cold, cold, cold.......be sure to warm your egg before carving. Eggs shatter much easier when they are shivering. (I can use those pieces for crushed eggshell ornaments)
2. If your carving area is in the garage and it's cold, cold, cold.......be sure to warm your own body with heaters. Straight lines turn into squiggles when you are shivering. (Another diorama egg on the way!)

Decoupage:
1. Don't tell your budding artistic daughter that has just learned how to write in cursive that you have colored pencils..... .....they quickly start disappearing. But you soon have colorful "I Love You Mom" keepsakes that are worth their weight in gold.
2. Be sure to tell your budding artistic daughter that the little tiny scissors are mine and to not touch them, or you will be wasting lots of time looking for them. But you soon have colorful paper snowflakes that say "I Love You Mom" that can completely cover your refrigerator. ......... ........and lots of little tiny bits of paper in someone's bedroom that need to be vacuumed up.
3. If you want to be truly successful in creating decoupage eggs, shave your entire body, including your head, pluck all your eyelashes, and do all your decoupage in a 500 gallons size ziplock bag. Since that isn't going to happen, be sure to carefully inspect your egg before the latest layer has dried, so you can lift off that eyelash before that layer of glaze has dried.

Eggs in General:
Eggs are going to break and crack. It's Murphy's law! So, prepare yourself ahead of time and just relax and go with the flow. But, you can also avoid serious damage by not putting a whole tray of eggs on the counter just below the cupboard that has a bottle of honey that was put in there cockeyed. When you open that cupboard door, gravity can cause that honey bottle to land in such a way that every egg is broken. (Gee, I get to do more crushed eggshell ornaments!)

So, my goals today are:
1. Draw more pysanky.
2. Dig out that eyelash.
3. Warm my body and egg before attempting to go back to the garage.
4. Wash some more eggs.
5. Wear gloves

Presentation to the Kiwanis Club

Today I will be giving a presentation of a few of my eggs to the local Kiwanis Club.  I hope to be able to offer them a carved egg for them to raffle off for a scholarship fund and perhaps to make this an ongoing event for them.  Wish me luck!

Only in the Heartland Egg

After a long absence from the computer and egging, I present the "Only in the Heartland" Egg, carved on an ostrich egg. This egg has been sold the the State Bank of Wapello for a raffle. As well, I completed 100 lit Christmas Ornaments for the bank to be given to each customer that signs up for a Christmas Account. Stop into the bank and sign up for your Christmas account in order to receive a 2009 Christmas Commemorative Egg Ornament

If you are in or near Wapello, Iowa - - take a moment to wander into the State Bank of Wapello.

I have a display of eggs in the lobby's display cases. There you can see several different designs ranging from jeweled necklaces, jewelry boxes, diorama, filigree, reverse relief carvings, night lights, heritage photo frames, decopauge and hand painted eggs. The sizes range from finch eggs all the way up to ostrich eggs.

The eggs will be on display for the month of April, 2009

Happy Easter Everyone!
Today was an instructional day for me. I provided a presentation of egg design to the wonderful kiddos of Wapello Elementary 3rd Grade. They were an intentive audience and asked lots of great questions.
I brought in several eggs of different sizes and let them pass them around. A short synopsis of different types of egg decoration was provided. Gearing a presentation to this age group is fun, as I was able to include the things they like to do into the conversation. Now they know that you don't have to have years and years of practice with egg decorating or a lot of money invested into the craft. They can take up the art with stickers, nail polish, paint, glues, magazine pictures, items from nature.........anything they would like to add to an egg.
I passed around a few egg decorating books and several publications from the IEAG for them to review as well.
Afterwards, Mrs. Kuntz took pictures, which I will share with you at a later date.

Thanks to the 3rd Grade of Wapello Elementary, Mrs. Bev Kuntz, and the other teachers that welcomed me into their classroom today!!!

Carving Lace Designs into an Egg Complete Tutorial

Carving a lace pattern can be a challenge, but if you take each step at a time, you will notice that in no time, a lovely egg will emerge.

With a bit of experimenting, I have found that the burs that will most commonly be used are

• 33 1/2
• Small Round Carbide
• Diamond Football
• Green and White Stones
• 699
• Flame
  

After outlining your design, keep your PSI low.

Choosing your Design, Placement on the Egg

You can place your design on the egg by drawing it on the egg, or by gluing it on.

If you find areas that your design does not cover, draw in the connecting lines.

Carving the Outline of your Design

Use your 33 1/2 bur to carve the outline of your design. Once done, if you have glued your design to the egg, you can soak it off with water.

We will be carving the highest areas first, then the lowest, then switch to the medium height areas.

Carving the Highest Areas First

Start out with the Highest Areas first. Lower the PSI on your carver to maintain control. Use a Diamond Football and take advantage of the shape of the bur to shape any curved areas.

Review of Highest Area Carving

After completing the highest carving areas, you can smooth them with a green and white stone.

Lace Cutouts

Be careful so that you don't carve all the way through the shell. Keep the indents spaced openly. If they are too close, you won't be able to create the loops.

Creating the Cutout Loops in the Lace

Slowly does it!

Carving the Lowest Areas

Working on the Lowest Areas next, be sure to use a lower PSI so you can control the bur.

Smoothing out the Carving Marks/Lines

Be sure to keep your PSI low so you can control the bur.

15-20 PSI is a pretty good level to keep.

Egg with Back Light

Be sure to keep a light behind or inside your egg while carving the lowest areas, so that you will see how deep you are going.

It is sometimes helpful to not use an overhead light while using a back light.

Deepening Outlines and Opening Holed Areas

Opening up X'd out Areas

Time to Stipple

Take your small round carbide ball and gently dot up and down in areas you wish to stipple (make bumpy)