Egging Hints 1




From Kathy:
Dave polishes his emu eggs with steel wool after the carving is finished no oil or varnish needed I don`t know if this would work with other eggs.


From Terry:
I have an excellent way to do water falls! I take a piece of mylar about the width I need for the fall and arch it across a Styrofoam ball. Then I add a little blue green ink to epoxy and started to dribble it on the mylar. If you keep working with the epoxy as it sets you can make ripples in it. It Looks Great! Also I add a little white paint here and there once the epoxy sets. Under the waterfall I put a mirror covered with the colored epoxy. I take the epoxy off the ball and start building cliffs around the sides of it.


From Lyn:
I asked how to save my stands which have green tarnished spots all over them.
Lemon juice and vinegar works for things like that. Scrub with soft toothbrush, rinse very well and dry in low (200) oven...some do overnight. Spray with Krylon or whatever light misting/protective spray that you use there.


From Noreen:
Rio Grande has some tarnish removers, etc., in cloth form as well as polishes and creams -- they are in their tools and equipment catalog.


From Karen:
I have found locally a brite gold spray paint that I use on tarnished stands,etc.


From Karen Prince
The simplest way to get the green spots off the gold stands is to brush them with a toothbrush (hard) and neat lemon juice. Once they are all clean, rinse with water and dry. Then brush, dip or spray the stands with sealer and they will never discolour again. In fact it is good practice to seal all your stands when you get them so they don't discolour over time.

From Michele:
There are many ways to do the decorated egg box. But try this one.

  • 1. mark egg in half, either length ways or width ways
    2. find the half way mark on front and back
    3. mark for hinge
    4. cut along line where hinge will go
    5. lightly cut grooves either side of cut line 6. also scrape hinge (side that will be glued to egg)
    7. use Epoxy and glue hinge to egg
    8. once dry cut rest of egg open
    9. now paint it inside and out
    10. and now decorate in what ever style you like AND HAVE FUNNNNN



  • From Sharie:
    Well I really haven't done that much shipping but what I have done and what I've told others who've bought my eggs to do is  to place them inside a 16-20 oz Solo cup (plastic cup) with some shredded tissue paper all around  put a pop lid on it and then place that inside another box filled with popcorn (the real thing, since it's biodegradeable).  Haven't had any complaints yet.


    From Doris:
    I bought a foam mattress pad at a sale. It has the appearance like a very big egg crate! For shipping an egg I cut two pieces of this, one for each end of the egg. I tape it together loosely but firmly, with the lumpy points toward the egg. This goes into a box with some padding or bubble wrap to keep the egg from bouncing around. Now put this box into another box that is larger. Pack all around the first box with bubble wrap, crumpled newspapers or some 'popcorn foam'. If you've done it right you should feel confident to drop the package from shoulder height. The post office doesn't handle packages with kid gloves at all, even if you specify "fragile"! Insuring the egg is also a good idea. You have to be careful with what's put inside the egg too. If you have something relatively heavy in there (such as glass, porcelain or pewter) the jostling around could easily jar it loose and you undoubtedly will have a broken egg regardless of how carefully you've wrapped it up. I guess anything really delicate should be delivered by hand! Good luck.


    Make a perfume bottle
    From Tom Yanez
    Cut an egg in half, fill both halves with cotton, lay the vial on the cotton, with the neck in the hole you've cut to accommodate it. (should be a snug fit when both halves are brought together). Apply glue to the mating edges of the two half egg shells and glue together.


    From Jean:
    E-6000 is a wonderful glue that holds well even for hinges and holds faster than the epoxies and when cured it is virtually impossible to loosen the hinge.  It glues most anything to anything. 


    From Peggy....
    Question for Emu carvers. If you carve down to the white and hit a thin spot that turns brown or almost starts to break through, is there anything to touch up the spot to: 1) fill in the wee hole 2) get the white colour back as yellow is not nice effect. paint doesn't belong here I think. still experimenting
    Suggestions are:
    Liquid Lace.
    Crushed white egg shell mixed with elmer's glue.  Testor's contour putty to fill holes, so it should work for this too.  It dries hard and white and can be sanded.  This can be bought wherever you find model train supplies.

    From Karen.....
    For those who are having trouble finding or affording the alcohol based Tria inks for making the polished stone eggs I found this recipe on my rubber stamping lists for making your own alcohol inks:
    "Add one package of powdered Rit dye     to a small baby food jar....then add rubbing     alcohol to the top of the jar, and shake well.     Another way I've done it is to take a black     film canister, fill that about 1/4 of the way     with the powdered Rit dye, then fill the rest     of the canister up with the rubbing alcohol,     and shake.  I've found this to work really well".




    INDEX