custom decorated keepsake eggs which are made with names, and logos, custom words, to commemorate people and events
This egg was one of the first that i cut out a portion of after the finding out online that one can carve out portions of an egg with a dremel. That just opened up all kinds of avenues for having fun with clay and eggs. This one has faux pearls and a little flower pot with roses inside the cutaway. The specks in the flowers are flower petals from someone’s personal event, to be memorialized. Find out how to purchase such a custom egg on memory-beads website.
This egg surely was a surprise to try to finish, not the best egg in the world by a long stretch. I began by covering a small chicken egg with a rolled out layer of glitter-red fimo, marked out circles on that layer, then cured. I punched (with a push pin) out the circles (and saved them LOL) and then added a layer of orange, cutting out the holes over the original holes (for each additional layer similarly), then cured again, and added a layer of fluorescent yellow with additional fluorescent powder added), then cured, then a layer of green, and cured again. I put all the left over colors together to create a mokume gane for the top layer. When the egg was warm after each cure i tried tied to trim any extra clay off each of the newly added color. I chipped the egg shell out after all layers were cured. BTW, have you ever tried to sand the inside of such a structure. I could not find a tool, but finally put a pencil thin stiff bristle paint brush in the end of my variable speed drill. That worked a little, but finding the right angle for brushing off the inside of the areas between the holes was challenging.
When I began sanding I found that some fracture lines had appeared that I could not sand away. I don’t know whether I should have put all the layers on soft, right from the start and cured once….if perhaps each layer shrank and c
racked with the addition of each new layer? It seemed that the fluorescent yellow was the breaking point, but I would have to try to recreate the error, requiring several eggs to be made again (probably not happening). If I do try another layered holey egg, keeping all layers soft before curing it just once, it will be a black and white checker board egg…. It wont be a perfect test though, since the fluorescent layer wont be there. BTW, the fluorescent layer did look cool in the dark.
After hours of unsuccessfully sanding out cracks, I just decided to cut my losses. The picture is terrible, it really is kind of an interesting sculpture.
This egg was a little bit tricky to finish, not being an engineer I misjudged the weight of flowers made of polymer clay and the “wilting” of heavier structures as I cured the egg in different stages. The end result is not stunning, but i kind of like the roughness of the base and cutout parts of the eggs, and the new look of the yellow red and golden roses. I enjoyed finishing it.
I struggled with the engineering on this egg, LOL, it is a good thing i don’t build bridges. But the fence stays behind and the short part of the fence is actually attached to the spiral cane egg. I had to prop and support these items when curing, since the tendency was for the fence to fall apart during that process and not stand plumb when resting on all the fence posts. The spiral cane was just left over clay with translucent in the center moving to grey and black at the outside. The fence was not sanded to make it look rustic. In retrospect, it might have been fun to actually use a technique to have it look like wood… mokumu gani?
This was a fun egg to make, not perfect, but I just covered a small chicken egg with an 1/8th inch covering of black polymer clay, smoothed it, then used a heart cutter to cut the clay down to the egg (carefully not breaking the egg). THen cured it and used a knife and push pin to finish severing the hearts from the body of the egg. After removing all hearts, and chipping away the egg from the inside, i sanded it and attached metal butterflies embedded in a black, brown and white cane (slitting the ends of the round cane where the top and bottom of the butterfly were, then separating it like wings (under the metal wings). Cured again, and left without a finish. I saved the black hearts for another project.
Work in progress — this egg, trying to figure out how to put a band on the lower half inside so that it closes like an egg-box. Translucent clay was rolled thin and put on the egg first, and scallops were carved out before the clay was cured. After curing, an exacto knife was used to puncture the egg shell along the lines of the scallop. The canes were left over, just joined and rolled a little and randomly put on the top and bottom halves and the egg was cured again. what I forgot to do was to bind the bottom half of the egg so that it did not expand (sag) just a little and make it too big to fit inside the top half. I did some sanding then put both halves into the oven just to heat them up, then each one was shaped a little while it was still hot (using potholders). I added a blue rim to the base half and forget-me-nots and leaves to the top edge and cured it again.
I did manage to build a shelf on the bottom half of the egg so that the top now fits over the edges….. and made some little eggs with the left over canes for inside.
Two eggs covered with polymer clay, mainly with a black and white racing flag cane and other stuff. The inside egg was covered with translucent polymer clay, as thin a layer as i could roll. THen cured. Two holes drilled in top and bottom to house a tiny wooden dowel that went through and through the egg with short ends above and below to be secured later in the large egg. A second layer of polymer clay was applied to the small egg (did i mention it was a cockatiel egg) and cured again.
The large (actually it was an extra large chicken egg) was covered with a thin layer of translucent polymer clay and cured, then with a knife it was cut in half, and the side portions cut out. I positioned the small egg inside the two halves of the large egg, cut out a little half circle in each for the stick, and used clay on top and bottom to secure the small egg inside. Then cured two halves (and small egg) to stabilize them.
I next put a layer of black and white flag cane (along with other canes added) on the outside of the large egg, and cured once again. Sanded, then and chipped out the egg shell from the inside of the large egg with a dental pick. I did have to patch up a crease in the joint between two halves with black clay…. nothing i do is perfect, patching is a way of life for me. Anyway i sanded out the windows, and added decoration. I might add more. not sure. This is not a prize possession, obviously, but I enjoy the process of inventing.
The base of this polymer clay and egg shell snowman is an extra large and a medium egg shell, emptied, covered halfway with thinly rolled white polymer clay. I used a scalloped shaped cookie cutter (tiny tiny) to cut out the snowflake patterns from the uncured white clay layer over the egg. then created a blue and purple cane, and sliced it the same thickness as the white covering of the eggs, cut a scalloped shape and put it in the space where i removed the cut from the white layer. I rolled these two halves of the snowman smooth, then used the tip of a phillips screwdriver to make the spikes in the snow added the coal eyes and carrot nose. I cured the two halves, sanded and trimmed a little and then put them together with white polymer clay and liquid polymer clay. i cured the pieces as one. Then added the scarf. Ear muffs were made from faux fur (a circle cut just bigger than the plastic drapery rings that i found lying around, and used as the base of the muff. I used hot glue to cover, and then also hot-glued the head wired (cut and bent to shape).
I would have preferred a bigger body and a smaller head, but didn’t have any eggs on hand that fit the bill the way i would have wanted…. so i used what i had–the story of all my art. I did put varathane on the eyes, mouth and scarf.
This is a link to this individuals pinterest post HERE, where this image was posted. Would that I could make an egg as beautiful as this ornament. I cannot clearly tell if this is “flat” or round, which i think it is. THis site has many other polymer clay round objects.
On this brown egg I made swirls with gold polymer clay and after curing it, I etched some dots in the spaces between the clay using wax, a kistka and then soaking in vinegar, and then repeated the process with other areas on the egg. The doodles are black sharpie, pink and white acrylic paint. This was sort of a practice egg, to try out etching.
