Actually it is the real life every day me
- Morgan - that does this for a living. I design decorative
arts and crafts projects - and this one was recently
published in a magazine called Craft and Decorating (with
credits to them for the beautiful photography they did of my
work).
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MATERIALS
NEEDED
blown emu egg
suitable decoupage paper
curved decoupage or cuticle scissors
blu-tack
Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish
1 ltr clear water based varnish
240 grade stearite sandpaper
scalpel
5 minute Araldite
round finding for bottom of egg
wooden satay skewers
kitchen sponges, container of water
small round brush
jar full of rice
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TO MAKE
Preparation:
For this egg with an Australiana feel I felt that the
natural colouring of the emu egg was the perfect background
for the images I had chosen. If , however, you would like to
paint a background for your egg you will need to apply
several coats of gesso and then sand the egg smooth before
applying the desired colour of acrylic paint. Unlike other
decoupage projects where the paper is sealed first with
Liquitex Gloss Medium and Varnish, presealing the paper
makes it too thick to glue down easily when working on
curved surfaces, so we leave the paper unsealed at this
stage. When we glue we will be using the sealer as an
adhesive and this in effect seals the back of the print at
the same time as attaching it to the egg.
Cutting:
Cut the pictures from the paper using the curved pair of
scissors. hold the scissors in your dominant hand. Using
small cuts and the tips of the blades only, slowly and
carefully cut around the outside of the images. When you
have cut out all of the pictures you need, use small amounts
of blu-tack to hold them in position while arranging and
rearranging your design until you are happy with it. The egg
should have a hole at both top and bottom where the contents
were blown out. It is important to make sure that you leave
the bottom hole open and cover the top hole with images, so
take this into account when arranging your
composition.
Gluing:
The Liquitex dries and grabs very quickly so it is best to
only work on about one square inch at a time when gluing.
Start with an underneath image, lift back a portion of the
picture, remove any blu-tack and, with the small round
brush, cover the area of the egg underneath the cutout with
Liquitex. Lay the cutout back down into position and smooth
it over with your brush until it is in the desired position.
With a barely damp piece of kitchen sponge press firmly over
this part of your cutout for about 30 seconds. This will fix
the picture to your egg. Working inch by inch around your
egg, glue each of the cutouts down. If you have a
particularly large cutout it will wrinkle if you try to glue
it down as a whole. You will need to clip into the image in
an unobtrusive area so that the cut is not obvious and this
will allow the image to sit flat. Allow the composition to
dry and then apply two coats of Liquitex and allow the whole
egg to dry overnight.
Varnishing:
The top hole in your egg has been covered but the bottom one
left open. Into this open hole insert as many wooden satay
sticks as necessary to give a snug fit. Your egg will now
look like a popsicle, sitting on the end of a skewer.
Holding onto the stay sticks, submerge your egg into the tin
of varnish, make sure the varnish comes all the way up over
the egg, roll the tin around if necessary to ensure the
entire egg is covered. Lift the egg up out of the varnish
and wait for a minute to to allow the excess varnish to run
off the side of the egg. when the varnish stops running and
starts dribbling insert the satay sticks into a jar of rice
and let the egg stand upright. The excess varnish will run
down the surface of the egg and collect in the rice. Allow
to dry for at least 5-8 hours before removing the egg from
the rice, remove any rice that has adhered to the sticks and
re-dipping the egg. Continue in this manner until 18-20
coats of varnish have been applied.
Sanding:
Remove the skewers. Using a scalpel, cut through the varnish
right at the base of the egg and around the sticks (but not
through the sticks). Once the varnish has been cut through
you can twist the sticks gently and remove then. Using the
sandpaper wrapped around a sanding block, sand the egg in a
back and forth motion. Sand the entire surface of the egg
until it is dull and smooth with no shiny dips or spots.
Wipe the egg with a damp sponge to remove any traces of
sanding dust and let dry for at least another hour. Reinsert
the satay sticks and dip twice more. Allow the final coat to
dry 24 hours before removing satay sticks.
To
Finish: There is still a hole in
the bottom of the egg which can be dealt with in two ways.
You can glue the egg into a stand or the bottom hole can be
attractively covered. There are round gold caps that you can
buy from Egg Artistry supply stores that are made specially
for this purpose. Glue one into position with some 5 minute
Araldite to provide an attractive cover for that bottom
hole.