How to carve an eggshell. Master class craft product lace carving eggshell carving cutting large holes eggshell. Preparing the egg for work

Eggs of different sizes and colors are suitable for carving.

Eggshell carving- an unusual modern hobby and traditional craft, which consists in carving an empty egg shell.

Story

Eggshell carving is one of the earliest forms of applied art. The shape of an egg attracts with its mystery, some kind of inner meaning. Many early civilizations considered the egg a symbol of fertility, tried to decorate it and used it for rituals aimed at increasing crops and fertility.

Modern man also appreciates the shape of the egg and its meaning. Eggshell carving attracts with the contrast between such a fragile object and what can be done with it. Now there is a whole galaxy of artists who are engaged in egg carving, they exhibit their work at exhibitions and in museums. High-class masters not only make carvings on eggshells, but also embossing, that is, the carving goes not only through, but also only in the upper layer of the shell.

On the right is an egg from the China Museum.

The art of eggshell carving was highly developed in China. It is customary to give a decorative egg for weddings, birthdays, and the birth of children. At first they gave simply red-colored eggs. But over time, the art of decoration reached heights, and carved eggs appeared. Museums in China have a large collection of such carved eggs from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Eggs after cutting were decorated with gold thread, diamonds, beads.

The use of carved eggs

The simplest designs for carved eggs

A carved shell can become a gift Easter egg, or a mini lampshade for a light bulb. Carved shell can be adapted for a candle or candlestick. Another application is interior decoration. You can create a whole composition or sculpture from several shells.

A carved eggshell as a gift to friends or family is a great reason to surprise the recipient of the gift, because egg carving is a rare and mesmerizing hobby.

Hand carved eggs are sold on Etsy online auction. The cost is from $35 to $250 per piece, depending on the complexity of the design.

Shell carving process

Shell preparation. Make a hole in the egg with a small drill or needle. Hold the egg firmly, but do not squeeze it so that the shell does not crack. Pierce the contents of the egg so that the yolk bursts. Then the contents of the egg can be removed with a syringe, or blown out (this will require a second hole opposite the first). Dry the shell. Sometimes people are interested in disinfecting the inside of the egg in order to have a completely clean item for crafts. To do this, draw boiled water into the syringe and inject water several times into the egg. Close the holes in the egg with your fingers and shake it. For special purity, it can be advised to treat the egg with a formalin solution.

To work, you need to remove the film that is present on the inner surface of the egg. The film interferes with work and creates sloppy lumps on the inside, spoiling the appearance of the finished model. For this purpose, an empty egg is immersed in a solution of water and "Whiteness" (in a ratio of 1: 1). The dissolution time of the inner film is from 30 minutes to 4 hours. The egg must be periodically monitored for peeling of the film. At the end of processing, the remains of the film are removed from the egg through the drilled holes, and the egg itself is washed with water.

Soft graphite pencil (3M) draw a picture on the shell.
A drill and a small bur can start shell carving, choosing those areas that should work in the light. Very light touch required, no pressure.
After finishing work brush off the rest of the dust from the shell with a stiff brush or steel brush. If a trace of the drawing remains in some places, then it should be removed with an eraser or sponge, but this should be done as carefully as possible so as not to lose the work done.
For shine you can rub the shell with oil or cover with a thin layer of varnish. Sometimes polished with felt.

Intricate designs for carved eggs

Start with a simple design. As soon as the first experience is gained, you can move on to more complex design options.
The most difficult thing is to hold the egg firmly, but at the same time, without pressure on it. It comes with experience. The eggs are usually held with bare hands. Gloves can wrap around the drill, which is dangerous for beginners. Only vinyl allowed
- Egg. Chicken, turkey, duck, goose, ostrich (emu) eggs are suitable for carving. Any color is suitable: white, brown, beige, green, black. It is more difficult to draw a drawing on a dark surface, for this you should use a white wax pencil or a needle. It is believed that it is best to use the eggs of an adult bird, the shell of such eggs is thicker and stronger.
- Needle for scratching the drawing, or pencils.
- Bormashinka. This is a tool that is used by jewelers, dentists. Basically, a small drill that is easy to hold in your hand, like a fountain pen. Powered by electricity. Modern cars are almost silent, have different modes of operation (fast turns, slow).
- Set of hogs(drilled). Among them there should be a powder puff (felt) for polishing the product. You can make a powder puff yourself by stringing a round plate of felt on a boron. Burs are a metal stick with a ball at the end.
Links
- All about hobbies, handicraft portal Hobbyportal.ru

Good afternoon, residents and guests of the Land of Masters.
Once, answering one of the questions about cutting large and small holes in an eggshell, I said that there are several ways. One of them has been described earlier. Today I will try to show three more.

I want to warn you right away that this is not a dogma and not an unshakable postulate. It doesn't have to be exactly as written. YOU ALWAYS HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO SEARCH YOUR WAYS TO ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL. And the more you find them, the better.

So, we have an eggshell, on which we need to cut out two fairly large, in relation to the shell itself, irregularly shaped holes. Chicken shell.

All previous remnants of the drawing from the shell were erased with an ordinary stationery gum so as not to distract from the upcoming work and so as not to be smeared on the shell. I advise you to do this more often, after each completed stage in the work. Why? If this is not done, then by the end of the work the white shell will turn dark gray from smeared graphite. And at the final stage of work, it will be quite problematic to clean it, since the fragile eggshell becomes even more fragile from a large number of cut holes of different sizes and shapes, and one wrong move can lead to... Imagine...

With a simple freehand pencil, draw a line along which we will cut. Be sure to leave a margin for roughing and finishing, as the tailors say, with an allowance for seams.

Next to the line we make one or more through holes. They can be made with any drill or bur, for example, a spherical shape. The diameter does not matter much, if necessary, the hole can be increased to the desired size.

Carefully cut a hole along the line.
Someone will say that this is a repetition of the previous method and will be mistaken. At first glance, they are similar. But there are fundamental differences.
1. Think about "seam allowances". In this case, the shell is cut into a rough cut, and the main elaboration of the contour of the hole is still ahead.
2. With this method, you can use a bur of any shape, except, perhaps, a ball, and any diameter.
Both of these differences greatly simplify the cutting of holes, regardless of their shape and size.
Using this method, it is possible to cut the shell in the hole in one piece or in parts, separating "pieces" of different sizes and shapes. For which several small holes are made.
This is one way.

The next way is to turn the eggshell into dust, in the truest sense of the word. If someone has ever worked with a file, needle file or any emery tool, they will understand what we are talking about.
The essence of this method lies in the fact that the eggshell is not cut into pieces, but is turned with a bur (s), resulting in the necessary hole.
To do this, it is enough to make one hole approximately in the middle of the part to be removed. And, gradually increasing it, cut the desired hole.
As with the first method, burs of various shapes and sizes can be used.
You don't have to start in the middle. You can make a hole in any corner or near any side. But then you will have to cut not in a spiral, but go in a "wide front", without leaving protrusions and depressions in the cutting lines, the alignment of which inevitably chips, shell breaks and cracks.

Like this, step by step,

gradually, slowly

enlarge the hole.
With this method, you can also remove the shell in parts. To do this, you just need to make not one hole in the part to be removed, but several. And in the same way, gradually increasing each of them, connect them at the end of the work.

It remains only to bring the plan to the end and align the resulting hole along the line.
After that, erase the remaining pattern with an elastic band.
One hole is done.

Using the third method, we will cut the shell in the hole in one piece. Although, you can do this in parts, as in the first two methods.
To do this, as before, we first mark the future hole with a pencil, while not forgetting to leave reserves.
Having marked the hole, we make a small groove along the line with a cutting burr.

Then we erase the rest of the line with an elastic band. We wash our hands and once again “pass” with an elastic band, now over the entire surface of the shell.
Everything. Enough. No more pencil in hand.
We have a thin groove left on the shell. Now, with very light movements, barely touching, we “pass” along it several times, gradually deepening it, avoiding strong pressure and uneven cutting. Don't aim to cut through the shell in one or two "passes". The slower you go deep, the less likely it is that the shell will crack in the wrong place and at the wrong time.
SHELL CRACKS MUST BE CONTROLLED AND MANAGED!

Yes, yes, you heard right: not “dye eggs for Easter”, but “carve eggs for Easter”! Egg professional and recognized art can be extremely difficult and painstaking work, but the result you get is simply amazing. Farah Sayeed, the acclaimed guru of shell carving, uses chicken, goose, emu and even ostrich eggs to create unusual and striking works, including those with dioramas inside.

It is indescribable how something as fragile as an empty eggshell can be turned into a stunning work of art. And this art can be mastered at home (and Easter is the time to start!) with a limited number of tools, doing it for fun or for business.

Prepare:
- raw eggs;
- an upholstery needle (the same as a regular one, just much larger);
- bowl;
- children's nasal syringe;
- cold water;
- vinyl gloves (just durable gloves, which are convenient to perform extremely delicate work);
- a protective mask;
- pencil;
- modern transfer paper - transfer paper, or decal paper (or carbon paper in case of emergency);
- a good diamond peak / pointed / thin nozzle;
- a rotating tool (in principle, you can even use a professional set for a hardware manicure, where a rotating tool can work for a long time at high speeds; either there are, for example, Dremel kits, or, in principle, a pneumatic manual - small - drill);

- protective spray / varnish, with which you can cover the finished work;
- three or four very soft brushes (optional);
- maybe clear nail polish
- Easter mood!

A. How to competently empty the shell:

1. Push the shell up and down with the upholsterer's needle to make holes. Let's say the top hole is a little smaller than the bottom hole.

2. Hold the egg over the bowl. Place the tip of a baby nasal syringe over the small opening. Squeeze it to force air into the egg, causing the contents to “pop out” into the bowl.

3. Fill the syringe with cold water, and squeeze it all into an empty shell. Gently shake the shell with water, then, just as in step two, blow out the water with an empty syringe. Repeat a couple of times. Let the shell dry properly.

A1. Shell strengthening:

For many, it’s impossible not to crush the shell during work. Therefore, a method was invented to pre-strengthen the shell, although real craftsmen work without it.

1. Paint half of a clean eggshell with crystal-clear (no yellowish tinge) nail polish.

2. Place the egg on a paper towel with the processed side up (support it with something from below if necessary) - let it dry for 20 minutes.

3. Finish the opposite side of the egg in the same way - and again on a towel, dry for 20 minutes.

Everything, the egg is ready for work.

B. Shell cutting for Easter and as a hobby:

1. Wear a pair of vinyl gloves and a good ventilation mask to protect against salmonella and dust from shell handling (and this dust is very easy to inhale).

2. Take a pencil to delicately draw your design onto the shell by hand. Or, to redraw the finished design from a print on paper, use transfer paper or carbon paper, in the end: we attach the carbon paper with a stapler with the non-carbon part to the paper with the image (so that nothing slips off), we put all this on the egg and, so as not to paint with carbon paper egg, we work very carefully.

3. Attach a good diamond-tipped point to a rotating electric machine (or use a hand-held air drill). Very carefully but securely hold the eggshell in one hand and the working mechanism in the other, and slowly cut the design along the outline shown on the shell. Don't push hard!

4. As a result, pierce the shell with a diamond nozzle along the entire contour. Slowly and very delicately remove the excess shell from inside your pattern. Use a very soft brush or dry syringe to remove dust from the shell to get a smooth pattern.

5. Use a separate brush or spray to coat the cut egg shell with a protective and sealing material.

Additions and warnings:

“This amazingly beautiful work calls for sensitive fingers, attentiveness and great perseverance. A good result - to practice! Break the first couple of shells - do not be discouraged: with each new "canvas" it will be easier to work.

- You can also paint the eggshells with acrylic paint to add color to your work for Easter. Remember, of course, that the paint will completely fill the small cut out details. And you can pre-paint with husks, for example, individual parts of the shell.

I don’t want to offend Alexander in any way, but I would rather prescribe it not in Germany, where Alexander lives, but in Odessa, moreover, from the time of The Elusive Avengers and Buba Kastorsky - this is the type that suggests itself in my subconscious.

Nevertheless, despite all the mischief and humor of the image, Alexander works wonders. And for example, today we will look at the process of making such a carved egg:

And all further text belongs to the pen (keyboard) of the master.

I'll start with this picture:

I resize the image to approximately the original size:

With a simple sharpened pencil, transfer the drawing to the egg

I marked in red the places that we will remove first.

A magnifying glass is a useful and important thing. Firstly, you can see better, and secondly, it protects your eyes.

I advise you to cover the table with something soft, like foam rubber. You can immediately forget an egg accidentally dropped on a hard surface. Even if you do not see any cracks, believe me - they are, and during further work they will only grow.

I will be using Diamant High RPM bits, so called FG (friction grip)

These five types of cutters are essential for this and most other jobs.

"KaVo Super Torque 625" This turbine allows you to work up to 350-400. 000 rpm, water-cooled drill.

With a round head (0.5-0.7mm), carefully drill holes in the "red" places

Lightly go through all the contours of our Masks. This is what a cooked and washed egg looks like.

The turn of the "inverted cone" has come. The photo shows how you can create the initial volume.

Change the inverted cone to a sharp cone. Carefully! One of the most dangerous moments - we remove the "red" places inside the mask!

First outer circle:

This is such an interesting master class from Alexander Volk, a person who is ready to share not only the beauty of his products, but also his knowledge and skills, which is not so common among professional masters today.
We thank Alexander, and I invite all visitors to visit the master's website at

Almost everyone has been familiar with the Easter holiday since childhood. Everyone is happy to prepare for this day, paint eggs, arrange baskets and Easter dishes. Today, egg decor is popular not only for Easter. Craftsmen created and mastered a new, magical art - eggshell carving.

Preparation for work

For work, both chicken eggs and ostrich, goose eggs are used, and some craftsmen even use the shell of a quail egg. Eggshell carving is a delicate and painstaking process, but at the same time it is interesting and varied. Try yourself in this fragile art!

Eggshell carving can be achieved at home with a limited number of tools, as well as done for the soul or for business. You just need to be prepared for the fact that nothing can work out the first time - after all, the eggshell is very thin and fragile, so it takes some time to adapt to such work and gain the necessary experience in the process of creating your egg masterpieces.

The technology for carving eggshells is described below. The advantage of this art form is that all the tools and materials are quite accessible to everyone.

If you decide to test your abilities in creating eggshell masterpieces at home, then you will need:

chicken egg (raw);
simple pencil;
template (you can do it yourself);
electric cutter or miniature drill;
a small sharp knife or scalpel;
paints for additional painting of the product or varnish for the finish coat;
soft cloth to put on the table;
spray varnish, acrylic varnish (you can use transparent nail polish);
magnifying glass (optional)
respirator or goggles (for sensitive eyes).

Let's start carving

First you need to free the egg shell from the contents. To do this, we make holes on the top and bottom of the washed and dried egg with the sharp end of a knife or a thick needle. After that, you need to blow out the contents of the egg with a syringe. After we collect soapy or clean water into the egg using the same syringe or syringe and blow it out again. The procedure must be repeated several times. Dry the egg. The shell is ready to go.

For beginners in this business, it is advisable to strengthen the eggshell so that it is difficult to spoil it during work. To do this, cover half of the egg with varnish, dry it and turn it over, then varnish the second part.

We start with a drawing - we make a blank. We take a pencil to delicately apply the selected design to the shell by hand. Ideas can be viewed in books, in photos on the Internet, or come up with your own;

Next, transfer it to the egg. You can draw with a pencil or use carbon paper. For convenience, we attach the carbon paper with a stapler with the non-carbon paper part to the paper with the image, we put all this on the egg and, in order not to paint the egg with the carbon paper, we work very carefully.

It is convenient to mark in red the places that we will cut out first.

While working, a magnifying glass is your best assistant for eye protection and better visibility.

We cover the table with something soft (for example, cloth or foam rubber). This will protect the shell from small cracks if the egg falls on a hard surface of the table.

For carving eggshells, we use high-speed cutters. A photo of five types of main cutters is presented below:

Holes are drilled in the "red" places. First you need to cut out marks - grooves along the contours of the pattern, while not deepening the nozzle too deeply. After that, drill the holes that are marked in red, already entirely. Remember that shell carving is a very fragile art. Therefore, it is better to play it safe and leave the partitions thicker so as not to spoil the product.

After that, we cut out an openwork pattern that diverges in circles from the main pattern. We pass all the eggs. This is one of the most difficult and painstaking moments in eggshell carving!

In the end, it is worth removing all the bumps with a polishing stone or a sharp knife. And now your masterpiece is ready! For a beautiful play of light and shadow, as well as for a beautiful lace pattern to be better visible, you can place a backlight on the back of the egg or inside.

If you want to add color to your work, you can paint the eggshell with acrylic paint. Despite its fragility, the shell is a very durable material. With proper storage, it will please you for a long time. To do this, the shell needs to be strengthened with varnish, and it is better to keep it under glass on a stand. Finished products look good hanging. To do this, it is better to tie them to a ribbon or rope. A carved eggshell is a wonderful, very beautiful and spectacular gift that everyone will like.

Here are some inspirational photos: