Auntie Mag's Eggs – Image heavy

At dragonessjade’s request, here are just a few of the eggeury (decorated eggs) that my Grandmother made. I got pictures of the ones in my doll cabinet (good thing my son was asleep). I have more eggs in a mini doll cabinet in his room and then all the Christmas ornament eggs are packed away. My parents have even more at their house. She used so many different things to decorate her eggs: scraps of wrapping paper, fronts of greeting cards, tiny figurines, music boxes, lights, et cetera. When she passed away in 1993 we went through her eggs and gave some away to friends to remember her by because there was no way we could keep them all (there were so many).

I’ve always wanted to do a Web site to feature the legacy she made for us and if I ever do it will be called Auntie Mag’s Eggs. Her name was Margaret Mitchell (no relation to the author).

First off here is the Egg Lamp I was talking about. The base is a decorated Goose egg and the shade is made out of an Ostrich egg. Once upon a time there was a glass chimney with it, but it got broken and thrown away. It casts a very soft glow when it’s on, but you can’t really tell due to all the daylight.

And the lamp off: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1332.jpg

This is a carousel egg she made using an ostrich egg and a music box. I helped tie the bows on the horses tails. My brother has a similar one done in green and gold.

This is one I figure several forum members will appeciate. It features an image of the famous tapestry of a unicorn trapped in a garden. She always knew I loved unicorns.

She knew the pain of gold leafing as well: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1335.jpg

This hanging egg has a little angel floating in some wispy clouds. She painted the flowers (Dogwood I believe) and cut out all those tiny holes using dentist/dremmel tools.

Back: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1337.jpg
Side: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1338.jpg

Here’s another hanging egg with a cherub and lots of ribbons.

This egg was probably a Valentine’s Day egg. Lots of glitter here. Her house had glitter everywhere, even the kitchen!

Side: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1341.jpg

Here’s and Easter basket she made from an Ostrich egg. She even filled it with smaller eggs.

This is probably the oldest egg she gave to me. It was one of the first Easter ones she made for me. Sadly the colors aren’t that bright in real live. Flash made them darker.

Back: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1345.jpg

These are a couple of eggs that can be used as jewelry boxes.

Open: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1347.jpg

Another Valentine’s egg: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1348.jpg
Valentine’s again: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1352.jpg
Valentine’s yet again: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1356.jpg
Side 1: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1357.jpg
Side 2: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1358.jpg
This one’s made from a stryafoam egg: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1351.jpg
Another Easter egg: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1349.jpg
Easter again: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1354.jpg
Back: http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/eggs/DSCF1355.jpg

The lamp is about 9.5 inches and the carousel is 12.5 inches. Nothing was really done to the eggs to help prevent breakage (and believe me we broke a ton over the years). Egg shells are pretty resilient, though sometimes cutting openings in them will leave weak spots. As I was putting the easter egg with the single white bunny in it back in my cabinet a small piece broke off. It already had another piece broken and sitting on the inside. I’ll have to pull out the elmer’s glue when my son is asleep one night and see if I can’t glue them back into place.

She was a very “crafty” person. After she retired from teaching she started working on eggs. She would go to shows across the country and compete against other artists.

It’s not exactly a well know hobby, but it is out there. There are different forms of eggeury as well: psyanky, carved, etched, sculpted, painted, dioramas, decorated. My grandmother always wanted to learn to do the pysnaky eggs but never did.

I believe she did win prizes at several of the shows she would go to, but I would have to ask my mom to be sure.

Most of the stands she would use were candle holders. Others probably were originally intended to hold mineral spheres.