Carved Eggs

Carved and etched eggs are a very old form of art, dating back to 60,000 years ago. While many people like to cut through the shell, I prefer to just etch into it. If you prefer to cut through you will just need to go over the spot more times. This is a beautiful project that can take as little or as much time as you'd like.

For this you will need a hollowed out eggshell,

A Dremel or similar, I'm using a diamond tiped mirror etching tool.

A brush is also recommended to brush off dust.

You'll also need a pencil to draw your design, and an eraser if you want to change the pattern.

Eggs have a rounder side on one of the tips of the egg. Take this end and hit is on the counter, peel away the egg shell until the film over the egg yolk is visible, pop the film with a pin and drain the egg and yolk.

Another method of doing this is drilling a small hole in one end and then scrambling the egg yolk with a toothpick then draining it.

Once you've done this rinse out the egg to get it clean, let it dry.

Eggs are reflective, so unfortunately when taking a photo from above the egg has a glare on it. Take your pencil and draw a design. For this egg I'm doing a lock egg, with a message saying, "This is Secret"

I like starting with the words because they are a simple way to warm up on straight and curved lines. So to do this take the etching tool and turning it on a low setting go back and forth over the letters. Make sure you can read it, when you can you'll know that it's deep enough, but you could go deeper.

This can happen at any time, and at any times. You take the brush, a thick paintbrush works well, and brush off the dust.

Cut the other lines, if there are any dots then it works well to just stick the tip on for a second. For circles us a low setting to go around the outside. If you decide to just do the outline and cut it all the way through then make sure you have places where it connects to the rest of the egg.

Here's pictures of the finished design. This took me about half an hour from start to finish.