I used a cockatiel egg to make a base, and scored the diameter (circumference or equator — which ever you want to call it) before I cured it. After curing I used a blade to score down to the egg and through the egg shell (which is easy since the cockatiel egg is very thin). I sanded the two halves and built a little mound for each half (poking several holes in it with an eye pin as a holder for the flowers built and added later. I cured the flowers (with an eye pin as the stems, then clipped the eye pins off to the height I wanted and inserted them into the pre-made holes in the mounds. Then i built up the grass and leaves the clay onto the eye pin stems, then cured the egg again. I did use varathane as a gloss.
All in all it is not “sterling” but kind of fun, and experimenting is the best part of the whole clay-egg-thing.