This is a brown etched chicken egg. I like the simple design and the rich colors. I don’t quite remember how I got the gold, but it was after the blue. A light acid wash after the blue, then a dip in lemon yellow or maybe golden wheat? That sounds about right.
Dyes are tricky – at least for me. And I don’t visualize the colors very well in my head so it’s all sort of a crap shoot.
Who can tell me what’s going on here?
1) Nothing
2) The pattern of diagonal crosses symbolizes the universal theme of star crossed lovers whose tragic quest for romance will eventually destroy them.
3) There seems to be a pattern of making a certain a repetitious pattern. And also making it white on dark blue.
Yes, the answer is 3! You win nothing. Now get back to reading between the lines and stop wasting time on the internet.
Easter eggs 2012
I had this notion that I could pencil in the proper lines to somehow make a traditional egg, with bands that would cross diagonally.
a work in progress
When I couldn’t get the two sides even, I decided to make faces. One side was to be a girl and the other side a boy. A sort of Romeo & Juliet egg.
Juliet isn’t young and pretty enough.
Romeo is too pretty and in fact looks a bit feminine.
Both of them have some eyebrow/eye/lip issues.
You know how people always talk about every damn thing they do as being a journey? They decorate their living room and it’s a journey or they learn yoga and it’s a journey? For the record, I will never say that. Nothing I do is a journey. It’s more like a blender or a waffle iron. Sometimes it’s noisy and things get mixed up. And sometimes things stick but you if you fiddle enough you make it turn out OK. Definitely not a journey.
Profound.
Well now I’ve done it. I’ve gone and made an egg featuring a portion of the lovely Wendell Berry poem, The Wild Geese. A little birthday tribute to Mr. Berry from me. Maybe the farmer in him would be pleased that it’s written on an egg, and that I am preserving the folk art of my ancestors.
When I am feeling hot, tired and ornery, which is often theses days, I will turn to the words of this wise, gentle writer.
There is a prayer-like quality to this poem that soothes me.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear,
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.
The next time I am dizzy and dripping sweat onto fire ants attacking my ankles, I hope I remember, “What we need is here.”
I have a lot of egg photos to share. Don’t fret – these eggs will not give you salmonella.
When other people are frolicking in the sand and waves, I am hunched over the table with my Ottlite by my side.
When other people are hoisting their glasses, making toasts like “Freedom from kings and mobs,” I am reveling in the smell of hot beeswax.
There is music, and a good deal of concentration.
And usually a cat or two purring nearby.
This is an egg I made recently. I was probably listening to Jason Lytle while I made it. Yes, I’m sure I was listening to Jason. And Get Set Go too.
I might be just a little in love with the colors because they’re so vibrant. Maybe you’ll like them too. Maybe you’ll want to shower me with praise. Or maybe even propose marriage. Or at the very least a fling.
Or maybe you’ll just leave unsatisfied, unimpressed, maybe even disgusted.
Why do you have to be like that anyway? I thought we were friends.
April is National Poetry Month and today is Poem in your Pocket day. Share a poem!
Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B.Yeats (1899)
I don’t use much orange on eggs. This color of dye is actually pumpkin and works much better for me than orange.
eggs -eggs-eggs
The green one with the tree is a favorite. It’s simple. On the other side it says “Would that the peace of heaven might reach you through these things of the earth”.
spilling crumbs 
