A New Addiction

I've discovered a variation on a favorite surface of mine. I love painting decorative eggs and now I've discovered eggshell jewelry. I cannot tell you how much fun these were to paint. These pins are all handpainted onto goose eggshells. There is a pin attached to the back of each shell so it can be worn that way as a pin or could fit onto a chain or ribbon and be worn as a necklace. The above design is called - Ladybug - no surprise there.

These are called - Pink Roses - I look at each eggshell in size and shape and decide what the subject matter should be. I've done the backgrounds on all these eggs in watercolor, sometimes mixing several colors to get it just right.

Once the watercolor paint is dry, which is pretty quick, I then sketch out my design right onto the eggshell. Purple Hydrangeas above, as well as all the other pins have the main subject painted in acrylics, right on top of the watercolor background.

Once I'm done with the design, my husband Chris sprays them with a protective coating so the design is sealed onto the eggshell pin. It is the same finish he puts on mailboxes so it is extremely durable. The above is - Pink Tulips.

I painted my Dragonfly design on a burnt sienna background. I can do a little bit of erasing if I mess up my drawing , although it does sometimes take some of the watercolor paint off. I can go back easily though and do a quick fix. Some of the designs I thought needed a little something so I added Swarovski crystals to certain ones.

The Ladybug & Hydrangea pin was one of the first that I painted, I think I was hooked after that. It's actually quite different then painting on a whole egg, more difficult because you have a lot less space to work on, you cannot wrap the design around, all you have is a slice of the shell to work with. I actually went out and bought 4 new paint brushes just to do these because I didn't have small enough brushes already at home. I would not have been able to paint these without those tiny brushes.

Well, these are my first 6 and I'm now finished with number 10. I just haven't photographed them yet so, the above is all there is to show for now. I'll be adding the rest soon though....

I have them for sale on my etsy site: http://www.eleganteggart.etsy.com/