16 Sep Tiger King on Eggshell
I love taking my best mandalas and transforming them into new designs on eggshell. This particular egg pushed my limits on design and color execution and I think it is one of my best creations to date.
Process
To create this egg, I start by sketching the design on a cleaned turkey egg, then draw beeswax across the shell as I dip the egg into different colors of dye to hold the design.
After sketching the design on a turkey, egg, I use dyes to dip the egg through a series of colors to match the original design on the mandala ‘Tiger King’. Because these are analine dyes, they do not behave the same way as paint and getting the correct color can be a challenge. In order to get the 3D effect with raised borders of the design, I use and acid to etch away the shell between dye baths.
When the egg is finished, it looks black, discolored and tacky. It is only when the wax is melted away that the design is revealed.
Custom made
Because of the hand made nature of these eggs, they have very limited availability. I love how delicate and fragile they are and there is something beautiful in knowing a machine cannot reproduce this design on a turkey egg. Each egg has character because they are hand drawn, tiny errors are found in every piece giving them a unique ‘signature’ and the dye never takes quite the same. No matter how many eggs I create of each design, no two are ever the same and I love the challenge of producing them.
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