a few good eggs

mos egg-stravaganza

so here are a few bisque eggs i have painted for one of mini's annual egg hunts. i always painted one for everyone that came which made it sort of difficult if an extra child showed up....somehow though, nobody ever left without one with their name handpainted by me on it!

what these eggs are is what you get when you are makin ceramics but after only one firing. if you have ever gone to one of the ceramic places to make somethin, this is what they give you to paint on with their special paints...then after you do, they fire your art with a glaze. well - these here eggs never get fired that last time...which means they are PEEERRRFECT for doin all sorts of paints and pencils and glue and stickers etc. etc. on because everything will stick to em. i like to paint mine with acrylic paint first...all different colors...then i set em all up in the egg cartons they ship em to me in and sit down surrounded by every art supply i own and start makin em all pretty.

as i paint each step on each one, i set em in those old fashioned egg holders - like deviled eggs used to be served in. anything will work though. i like to hold the eggs while i paint but sometimes my hand gets cramps after a while. the first year we had the egg hunt i told mini how bad my hand hurt - she always sat on a teeny lil animal print couch under my art table while i worked until she wouldn't fit any more - she was only two at the time but knew exactly what i needed....she went a got a blob of her playdough, covered it with saran wrap and punched it until it had the perfect sized dip for me to set the eggs in. this worked so well i have used the same blob every year to set the eggs in when my hands get too cramped up to hold em while i'm paintin on em.

i use a lil of everything on each egg....maybe some stickers if i am really pushed for time, always paint with a double ott brush, colored pencils, glitter and a fine point sharpie. one year i even printed out all my art real tiny and decoupaged it on in combination with everything else. once i get em all the way i want em, i slap a coat of shiny acrylic on em - anything will do - even modge podge.

right before each hunt, all the eggs are put on the wheatgrass covered front table - i'll put more shots of it up next. i always let the wheat grass flats hang off the table so it ends up lookin like a lil egg covered hill. the table is in the entry way and everyone goes there first to see what i painted on their egg. i love nothin better than visitin someone and discoverin all the eggs i have painted for that family, in a place of honor, displayed like they were ancient treasures. i have had many 911 calls along the way too - some egg broken into many pieces by accident and lots of cryin and beggin me to try to put it back together. where the kings men failed, i always succeed - altho i have had to cheat a time or two and just make a new one from scratch.

i am sure if you make some of these for your children, they will treasure em forever - no matter how they turn out...but i'm pretty sure you'll get egg-cellent results. be sure to send me some shots if you give em a try...and email me or jo if you need some help. oh - i emailed the faces out but lost track at some point and got confused...so if you didn't get yours yet just email me again and i'll send em along.