egg shell ornaments

Re: egg shell ornaments

John Lucas

>Dennis

Sorry no one has answered you yet. I've seen ornaments from eggs but never made one. We used to drill small holes in both ends and blow the egg white out but that's been too many years ago to remember the exact procedure. I would think you could make a hole about 1/4" to 3/8" to make it easier to get the stuff out and you wouldn't have to make your tenons so small.

I would use a dremel to make the hole. I think a drill bit would break the egg. I've seen some beautiful pierced egg ornaments but don't know who made them. I photographed some ornaments that were just painted eggs. This lady uses Duck eggs because she says the shell are tougher. She paints eyes and carves a mouth, puts seed inside for the teeth and then makes a little hat. They are cute as can be.

Re: egg shell ornaments

Jay in TX (formerly from Ohio)

>Dennis,

There are many ways to decorate eggs including piercing and painting. Do a search on your prefered search engine. "Egg Art" is a good place to start. You will find many example and little free advice, but cheap tips and trick guides can be had from the "Egg Art Guild". I did find one place, www.hobbit-house.com I think, that gave a brief description of that proprietors process. It seems they use a high speed drill (400,000 rpm) to do the perforations. John Lucas was spot on about cleaning out the innards. I also agree with John that a dremel may be woefully inadequate for this type of work, but "you can't make a"...egg ornament..."without breaking a few eggs". It seems even the pro egg artists break a few bits here and there, using them as "design opportunities".

Egg painting is really beautiful too. Do a search on "Pysanky" and check out the results. Some really gourgous stuff can be done with minimum $ output, but the time included in doing some of the more complex pieces must be exhaustive!

Good luck in your search.

Re: egg shell ornaments

Phil Joines Krum, Texas

>I've made a few. The eggs are from our chickens. The shells are thinner than comercial eggs but the shapes and sizes are more interesting. They tend to be very fragile.

To empty the insides I cut a 1/4" hole in the center of the bottom with a metal bur and a VS Dremmel. The yoke sack needs to be broken. I use a hook made from coat hanger wire about 2" long. It's chucked in the Dremmel and used at low speed. The innards are blown out using an air nosle with a 3/16" tip inserted into the egg. Keep the pressure low. wash out with hot water and soap.

After the shell has had several days to dry the openings for the finials are drawn with a drafting template and cut with the Dremmel at high speed.

I haven't done any piercing. LOML does some using a high speed dental drill type carver.

I've thought about using clear epoxy to reinforce the inside but haven't tried it.

An addendia

Phil Joines Krum, Texas

>You might try duck eggs first. Ther are stronger than chicken eggs.

Re: egg shell ornaments *LINK*

Phil Joines Krum, Texas

>You might want to check out the Eggshell Sculptor.


http://www.eggzotica.com