Egg Art: Experimenting With Mistakes

Hey, don’t toss that half-finished egg – some of my most interesting designs came about as an accident!

Every so often, when I am lost in eggworld, I lose track of what I was doing, which sections I had finished, or where I was going with a particular design.

Rather than chuck an egg for a small mistake, or putting it in my ‘examples’ drawer (where my broken, cracked, or non-sellable eggs are incarcerated), I try to make it work.

Here is the result of my latest boo-boo.

Quilt Star boo-boo
Quilt Star boo-boo

I meant to continue that black-grey checkered background around the middle band with the cross squares, but AFTER I put the tassels on the square shapes, I realized that the red lines would interfere and look choppy against the black and grey. Plus I had those little heart-shaped curlicues at the ends.

So I did what I usually do in these situations – I covered the ‘keeper’ ends with wax, immersed the egg in a jar of white vinegar, and etched off the background of the middle band. I meant to give it a light turquoise dip after the vinegar etch, but I kind of like the light-colored band. So I left it be. It’s very unusual, and it sold almost immediately.

Here are a few more of my ‘mistakes’ . . .

My black dye was old, and too weak for the center band, so I vinegar-etched it off and brought it back to a creamy white.
My black dye was old, and too weak for the center band, so I vinegar-etched it off and brought it back to a creamy white.

 

I had a dark red background, that made the whole egg look dim - no contrast. Etched it off, and the flowers really pop against the green leaves!
I had a dark red background, that made the whole egg look dim – no contrast. Etched it off, and the flowers really pop against the green leaves!

 

This is one where I lost track of my measurements and had to add those orange blocks of color at the top and bottom.
This is one where I lost track of my measurements and had to add those orange blocks of color at the top and bottom.

 

Original background was going to be black. Ugh. Blue over a vinegar wash looks bright and shiny!
Original background was going to be black. Ugh. Blue over a vinegar wash looks bright and shiny!

 

. . . so, as you can see – when in doubt – add vinegar!

 


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Nan

Nanette Thorell is an artist and online entrepreneur living in the mountains of southern New Mexico. The materials on this website may be freely copied and distributed so long as her copyright notice and Website address are included: © Enchanted Hen Productions. www.enchantedhen.com

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