All my eggs have their own personality. As I work, anything I am listening to (music, audiobook, radio) gets infused into the egg along with the design. It’s funny – eggs take several days to make, and when I come back to an egg after a break – whatever music or chapter of the audiobook I had been listening to, plops back into my head as soon as I pick up the egg again and begin to work. Must be a brain-thing. But I digress . . .

The Four Suns egg (affectionately known as ‘Celeste’) is one of my favorite designs. As you can see by the image number, I have made at least 38 of these multi-faced girls. I love the oranges and reds blending in the fiery rays of the sun. This is also one of my most difficult egg designs to make (hence, the price).

Celeste has evolved considerably over the years. I made my first on in 1996 (according to my part-number log) copied from a Pysanka Poster that I purchased online at The Polish Art Center

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of my original egg – probably a good thing, I’m sure it was pretty scary – but it looked somewhat like this:

The evolution of this particular design began with an altering of the sun rays, which I changed almost immediately as seen in this early version:

I finally settled on rays (I was going for ‘shimmer’) and went on to tackle the face. The face has become the biggest challenge. Using the light-to-dark progression of the batik process, it is easiest to draw the facial features first using light colors. But it doesn’t look right.

Trial and error ensued. Finally, using the toothbrush rubbing technique, I was able to achieve a face that made me happy. One with dark lines and a lighter background. This is the latest version:

And of course, during this creative process, I had to apply Celeste to jewelry as well. I only did a few pieces several years ago,

and I think I’m going to give this another go with the current batch and the more modern technique.

Should be interesting!

Link: Enchanted Hen Productions Ostrich Eggshell Jewelry

Yes, I am excited.  This is the first batch since moving to the Land of Enchantment, and it’s a good feeling to be settled in my studio and producing again.

It’s always interesting to see the final results as opposed to the work-in-progress.  The pieces might start out kind of uninteresting, until I get the final coat of finish on them, adding depth and bringing out the colors.  My fave result was with the simple design of the Trypillian Spiral earrings which were fairly cool looking in production but the black on brick contrast was much more dramatic when finished.

And then there are the Ukrainian designs with their warm reds and golds – they’re so pretty, I’ll post a picture here.

And this is just the first batch!  I still have a ton of work ahead of me and more new designs, but it does please me to get the first group out.

So I better get back to it!

Oh, first a Heads-Up  for those of you that are not on my email list yet:  There is a 25% discount for my subscribers through the end of March.  Sign up for my Enchanted Hen Newsletter (located to your right, on the sidebar) to get the coupon code.

Allright, I’m really going back to work now . . .

Nan

You know, I believe I discover something new every time I make a batch of jewelry.

Of course, I tend to discover it at the end of my batch instead of the beginning (where I could apply it to more pieces), but – oh well.  Next batch I can plan the design ahead and really experiment with this particular innovation.

It’s nothing real exciting (well, it is to me).  When dyeing the pieces, if I have a dark color background that has not been waxed, and I want to lighten it up a bit, I usually soak the shell piece in a weak solution of bleach.  I have to be careful though, because the bleach can dry out the shell (much like it does my fingers).  Then I brush it with an old toothbrush, maybe bleach some more until I get the result I want.

The thing about bleach and dyes, though – it doesn’t always clear out the color.  Sometimes it just fades the color to a dull version.  Blues are particularly hard to bleach.  Black is prettymuch impossible.

But – and if you have been following along – I had been using a vinegar etching technique on some brown eggs, and I wondered if it would remove dye.  So I tried it on a large oval brooch piece with the Rosette design on a black background.  I poured some undiluted white vinegar into a small bowl with the shell piece inside, enough to cover the surface.  Let it stew for about 5 minutes, and then removed the shell piece and brushed it lightly with a toothbrush under running water.

Voila!  It worked way better than the bleach, AND it did not fry my fingers to a chemical crisp!

The reason it works better, is that it actually removes a bit of the surface of the shell.  Whereas the bleach tries to alter the color.   And, of course, the wax is still protecting the design, so the only thing that gets altered is the un-waxed areas.

I was so pleased, I went back to all my (hundreds!) of finished pieces to see if I wanted any more with a white background.  Only found a few, but – like I said – next batch I’ll work with the technique a little more.

So, I learned a few things with this experiment:  (1) The dyes only penetrate the very surface of the eggshell, previously, I thought the dye saturated the shell.  (2) The dye remains in the little eggshell dimples and makes an interesting spotty effect that enhances the surface pattern.  And,  (3) Buy more white vinegar.

~Nan