Category: Custom decorated eggs

Black and white striped and checkered flag polymer clay egg, which, is neither fantastic, nor is it a good photo, but there is a certain comfort to the repeating (but not painfully ridig) repeating – i.e. a blend of chaos and order, just enough chaos to be fun to look at (and of course fun to make).

Polymer clay cane on the outside of an empty chicken egg, cured, then cut apart and turned into a small “pot” to place a little polymer clay topiary type bush. These roses and the bush were made with polymer clay with embedded flower petals, and so have deeper meaning than just a piece of artwork. You can have yours custom made. See many of the endless possibilities for such fun commemorative items NOT from china, but made custom for you HERE.

This was a fun egg to make. I covered the egg with a blend of translucent, yellow, salmon, white polymer clay and before curing carved out a serpentine line around the equator where I wanted to cut the egg after it was cured. This i sanded until smooth with 240, 400,  800 and 2000 grit sandpaper.  I used a razor blade and a push pin to separate the two halves, picked off the egg shell from the top half and around the inset portion of the bottom half and sanded the edges to soften and even up the two pieces as they fit together.

With green clay-mix i made a band for the inside of the bottom half of the egg box where the top half would fit over to close the egg box.  i cured this WITH the lid in place but coated the inside of the top half with baking soda to prevent the two halves from fusing, but also while maintaining the “fit”, as I was afraid one or the other half would warp during curing.

Next i covered outside a small portion of an egg shell with liquid polymer clay to give it a little extra strength, and also put liquid polymer clay on the inside of the edges of the egg box where the inverted portion of egg shell was placed to make a “platform” upon which to rest the flowers.  I cured the whole egg “with shelf” again (with the top on)…and with the baking soda to prevent fusing the lid to the box.  The shelf completed, i just pressed the rolled roses (lightly) roses and fit leaves between, onto the dome shape made with the inverted egg shell inside the bottom of the box. Just fun, nothing fancy or difficult.

I never really liked this egg, made with a cane that was supposed to look like a quilt. (It does have flower petals in it, from a person who was a quilter and I was trying to make some kind of a keepsake egg in commemoration.)  Some how it was a little too chaotic and I wasn’t that happy with the colors. So the other day i decided to cut it in half (not difficult with a blade and a pin to poke through the two layers (first layer was translucent polymer clay) and twist the two two halves apart. The purpose was to insert a row of flowers between the layers to look like they were kind of “trapped”.  I added some black paint (which didn’t take that well) behind the flowers to accentuate.  Education is costly sometimes, in terms of time, but unless I learn by experimenting, I go nowhere.

Life is a learning experience, so is working with any medium, polymer clay included.  I so get interested in the process of figuring out a new medium (or for my work during the “real work hours” finding a new pattern in the ultrastructure of cells).  I don’t know about you, but for me it has to be hands on.  I love tutorials but I don’t know what questions to ask until I get my hands and elbows deep into the projects and the medium.  So here i learned that using an old cane and a new cane together (especially when the cane is made with a softer polymer clay like Premo or Fimo soft) that they work together in entirely different manners while under the same roller or finger pressure.  The star like flower cane of black and white and yellow and a red center is months old, maybe a half a hear, while the yellow red and white cane was made the same day as I began layering it on this chicken egg shell.  Working them smooth, one moved around enormously, the other stayed the same. The third cane white petals and black background and a dotted center was about one month old.  This is how I learn.  While one is not better, they sure are different.

This egg looks like it has x chromosomes on it all in a row midway to the bottom. LOL. And whats more, the x chromosomes have a little NOR at their center (that is the acronym for nucleolar organizing region) again, hahaha. The original cane was a dark purple and brown and black and white butterfly cane. Used elsewhere, there was a substantial amount of cane left over, and I have used it in several different eggs.  I must admit that probably it is too dark, as it was reduced in size the black became a dominant color.  Next canes I make are going to have very little black, just learning this stuff, and having a great time doing it.  This egg was so smooth and satin-feeling that I didn’t coat it with varathane.  I do think you will see it again in a few weeks, as it seems to me NOT to have any particularly spectacular points, and I have envisioned small spouts (about 5) on it. I will drill holes, then build the spouts, and have flowers on wires i think, coming out of the spouts.

Many left over canes conglomerate decorated egg which includes canes made with rose petals, and daffodil petals and some greenery and wild violets and all sorts of spring flowers, just to remind me that this is a great time of year.  I can put your flower petals into canes and make such an egg custom. It is not too compulsive, but still quite organized (ha ha), a blend of chaos and order.

Cut-away egg and polymer clay which has memorial pink carnation petals in it, and added flowers made with foliage from funeral bouquet.  The six petal flower cutouts show the original egg shell still within the sculpture.