egg shells

The top pile of shells is cleaned and the lower pile is yet to be cleaned



Mr.Eleven asked "what are those eggshells doing in the Kitchen, it is starting to get kookie looking". He is right! I keep collecting shells and it is time to start dealing with them. By the way these are not the same egg shells as the ones in the photo above this is another pile yet to be dealt with.

A few weeks ago my mom suggested I look into doing egg shell mosaics on my sculptures, I did look them up and it is an ancient art as well as one being explored today here is one example. I loved the idea as it fit into what I have been doing over the past few years in my art, eggs, things from the home, the delicate/ordinary becoming substantial. As you can see I have collected a huge amount in a very short time.

The first step is to separate the membrane from the shell. This is extremely tedious! But I managed to make a nice pile of clean shells in one sitting and will attack the rest as needed. I will next, paint the sculpture surface with milk paint, then use white glue to afix the shells to the surface, in a nice mosaic pattern. The entire thing will be sealed with a water based polyurethane, unless I can find a less toxic alternative. I don't know how wax would work so I am not going down that road.

You have to crack a few eggs to make good art!
onward monkeys!