The Suprise Inside

         

The Faberge Eggs

 

 

  For three decades - from 1885 until the Russian Revolution - the imperial jeweler, Peter Carl Faberge, produced the now-famous Faberge Imperial Eggs as Easter gifts from the Tsar to his wife and his mother. With each passing year, these bejeweled masterpieces became more and more elaborate, inventive, and breathtaking.  Each egg took at least one year to create - sometimes two! - with an entire team bringing a suite a skills to the task, from watchmakers to enamelists, gem cutters to goldsmiths and more. When the Romanov family fled from the Bolsheviks in 1916, the collection of fifty magnificent eggs was left behind in the palace, where they were subsequently looted in the chaos.  Some were lost, possibly destroyed, many ended up in private collections, and the rest are on display in St. Petersburg. 

Some of the Imperial Eggs from the workshop of Faberge

   

An example of the ornate "surprise inside" that was standard on most of the eggs

             Each egg is very different from the previous egg, since Faberge intended to outdo himself each time, both in design and fabrication.  But one thing that almost all have in common is that they open up and contain a surprise, and it all began with the simplest egg of all, known as the Golden Hen Egg.  This first of the Imperial Eggs has a simple, white enamel shell, and opens to reveal a golden yolk, which then opens to reveal a golden hen.  I took this elegant masterpiece as my inspiration for my project, a sweet little Easter gift.

The Golden Hen Egg, the first of the Imperial Eggs

             Tracie Lyn Huskamp has designed two 6x6 stencils of speckled eggs for StencilGirl® Products:  S021 Speckled Eggs has two larger eggs on it, and I used the larger of those two eggs to trace out onto a pale green cardboard.  I cut out two, and used the speckle patterns to add brown and blue splotches on both sides. A couple of sprinkles of white paint gave them a little more brightness. I then cut narrow strips of the same cardboard (one narrower than the other) and cut them to match the perimeter of the eggs, softened the fibers by curling the strips around the edge of my desk, and then glued them in place with PVA glue to make a little box with a snug-fitting lid.

 

 

 

            Now I had a little speckled egg box.  But what could the surprise inside be?  It had to be something more than just a little candy or a message.  Could I somehow replicate the golden yolk or golden hen?  And then I remembered my bird guts!  Stencil guts are sometimes available from StencilGirl® Products, and at one point when a set of “bird guts” was available I put them right into my shopping cart without delay (and you should not delay either if you see them make another appearance).  These guts are the mylar scraps left over from the stencil cutting process.  Tracie Lyn Huskamp also has a 6x6 Songbirds stencil S034, and I had some of the birds that were the by-products of cutting that stencil.  A little bit of gold leaf, and I had a golden bird!   All that remained was to add some white jelly beans, and I had a perfect little gift to send to my daughter.  (Full disclosure: I did snip off the bird’s tail so it would fit inside the box!)

Adding gold leaf to the bird

            This is my last Master Pieces column.  I’ve really enjoyed researching the artists and using them as inspiration for my own art exploration.  I hope you have enjoyed reading these columns as much as I enjoyed writing them!  If you want to see any more of my art going forward, feel free to look at my Instagram @jennitoga.

Eggs Speckled Stencil by Tracie Lyn Huskamp

    

Stencils, Easter Eggs and Rolling Out a Whole Lot of Fun

Hi friends!  Hard to believe springtime is just around the corner. In Southern California, it already feels that way because today was actually 87 degrees!  Nearly summer, but not, lol.  Anyway, with Easter approaching I thought it might be fun to turn Easter eggs into artwork. Not hard to decorate by any means, you can still do the traditional egg dyeing but then consider adding some stenciled embellishments or stencil decor directly onto the eggs or you can try a few creative things with the gelli plate, deli paper, or simply do some watercoloring.

For all my eggs, I created the background first.  I enjoyed using the gelli plate with stencils because I could continue to roll the egg until it was entirely covered in paint. (I also managed to clean my plate. :).)   Sometimes the stencil images remained clear and sometimes they got a bit layered but isn't that what mixed media is about?  Lots of textures come from layering.( I loved using the smaller gelli plate for my egg "dyeing", as shown below.)

Applying Seth Apter's stamps (Planner Basics) and watercolors for the egg's background on the banded egg shown below,  I embellished a strip of watercolor paper with Ann Butler's 1 x 4 Rails stencil set using both paint and watercolors and wrapped it around the egg, adhering it in place. This is a great set with petite images.  The tulip from the Scattered Bunnies, Blooms & Birds Background Stencil by Margaret Peot was watercolored too. This is a wonderful stencil for springtime and works well for the eggs again, because of its small designs.  

Deli paper is an ideal surface and substrate to make prints for eggs.  The paper allows for a perfect design and it's thin enough that the underlying color or design, as in the egg, can be seen. (See egg below.) I actually used ink to create my images onto the paper shown here then tore them down to manageable sizes and adhered them to my eggs with a glue stick.  Basic collage-making.  If your image is too large, you might get wrinkles in your paper so smaller images are ideal. However, you can make small snips into some images, which can help them lie flat.  Sometimes there is a little overlap but it still looks nice.  (Notice the large daisy flower at the top of the egg.) 

Some stencils are perfect for working directly onto the egg like this Hexagon Set by Ann Butler.

And of course, making fussy-cut images always adds dimension to any project.  Here I attached a black string to my gelli-rolled egg, watercolored a few flowers from watercolor paper, cut them out, and adhered them to the egg.  I love using these for table decor for Easter. 

And for those of you who don't celebrate Easter, consider all the ways you can embellish and decorate painted paper mache shapes. They would look beautiful on top of a gift!  

Well, that's it from me today! Time to do some major clean up, but I say, if you can't get a little messy when creating, you might be missing all the fun.  Leave the overthinking behind, get your hands a bit painty and start playing. What's on your art agenda?   

Thanks for reading my friends, 

Debi 

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