I used some very tiny brushes to achieve this level of detail. Remember that this on a standard large chicken egg like what you'd find in a grocery store.
Come back next week for my newest hand embroidery design!
I made this egg ornament to fulfill a special request. The recipient loves Arthur Rackham's illustrations of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. This egg was divided into panels by all the woodgrain painting and in each panel I put a different copy of one of Rackham's illustrations. Here you see Titania, queen of the fairies madly in love with Bottom who is rather appropriately sporting the head of an ass.
I used some very tiny brushes to achieve this level of detail. Remember that this on a standard large chicken egg like what you'd find in a grocery store. Come back next week for my newest hand embroidery design!
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One of my fun little activities at Easter and Christmas is making ornaments from eggshells.
The process is fairly straightforward. First, I drill a hole in the top of an egg with my Dremel. Second I flip it over and poke a few holes very close together using a quilting pin (I also scramble the yolk a bit). Next, I use a nasal aspirator (leftover from when my kids were babies) to push air into the egg through the pinholes to force the egg out of the Dremel hole. I used to blow directly into the egg with my mouth, but one long night with Salmonella convinced me to find another way. Then using the nasal aspirator again, I wash out the inside of the egg with soapy water and rinse it out. Once it's dry, I paint with acrylic craft paints. I use some wire, strong glue and a bead cap to create a pretty loop at the top of the egg to string a ribbon through. After many coats of high gloss varnish, the finished egg is fairly durable. These make excellent decorations and gifts. Over the next few weeks, I'll show off a few more of my eggs in between my pattern releases. My next hand embroidery pattern will be published on the first Monday in April (but it may come late in the evening because of this T-ball nonsense that I'm currently caught up in). This unique Easter egg design started out as a peaceful ocean with rhythmic waves. Then, slowly, the ocean became deeper and more interesting. Next came the sky, pale and misty as though the morning clouds are finally thinning and the sun is just beginning to shine through.
Still it wasn't done. This egg needed something to make it special. I thought of pirate ships or sea monsters. I even thought of islands and whales. In the end, what the egg wanted was a beautiful white dove as the classic emblem of peace with an olive branch clasped in her beak. Once it was done I sat back and saw that I had created Noah's dove flying across the receding floodwaters. This design might make an interesting Easter decoration or a lovely Biblical-themed gift. At only 5x7 inches, this design won't be a huge commitment and most people could probably finish it within 40 days and 40 nights. As usual,you can find this pattern on Etsy and Craftsy. By the way, in case you were wondering what happened to last week's post, I had t-ball season start up, plus a handful of kids' birthday parties (one of which I was hosting). Spring is just beginning to blossom all around and this long, winter is coming to an end. In celebration of this this, I present this delightful little springtime fairy to welcome in the warmer seasons.
Where I live there are tiny bright green leaves beginning to unfurl like the leaves on her dress. The redbud trees will soon explode with brilliant violet and fuschia colored blooms contrasting again the dark colored bark tree, like her vibrant wings and rich wavy hair. To me, these are the colors of early spring. This pattern comes with the Spring Fairy in two sizes: 6 inches tall and 4 inches tall. Mirror images are also included. Color and stitch guides provide some friendly suggestions. She's listed on Etsy and Craftsy. |