The Egg Box

I love spring, the promise of warmer, sunnier days, although this year they have been somewhat absent, but we live in hope that spring is surely just around the corner.

And one of the nice things about spring is the enthusiasm with which this time of the year is greeted by our twittering feathered friends. Their optimism inspired me to make a little display made from an old box which has been languishing in the loft, broken and unloved. It previously had semi-precious gemstones and pretty rocks in, and was in desperate need of a little TLC.

I started by taking the box to pieces before painting it with several coats of white emulsion. I then decided to splatter the box with darker blotches to imitate the spottiness of eggs, so out came the box of acrylic paints!

And using the bristles of a paint brush I flickered paint onto the wood, and finished the woodwork off with a couple of light coats of varnish, and then assembled the box.

An old book on birds' nests and eggs (I love these kind of books), painted to scale, provided the perfect picture to scan and print onto computer watercolour (slightly textured) paper. Then it was just a case of carefully cutting around the eggs and the names of the corresponding bird, and arrange all the pieces on the backing board, which I had wrapped in handmade paper.

Using tiny foam pads (from a packet of 200 obtained from a stationers) acting not only to attach the egg to the backing board, but also to raise the individual eggs slightly to give them a three dimensional effect. Since it has been illegal to take the eggs of most wild birds since the Protection of Birds Act 1954 and it is illegal to be in the possession of any wild birds' eggs taken since that time under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, this is the closest I'll get to having my own collection of eggs. I love all the colour variations.

And it sits nicely in a spring display!

I have since seen a photo in a life style magazine showing a framed picture of another egg 'collection' where the artist had made the eggs by cutting them out of old maps. It's a nice picture, although I wouldn't spend £600 on it, and actually I think I prefer my own creation :o)

Happy Sunday to you!