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Beaded Chicken Egg © 2007 by Desertbrat:
Date: 2007/3/23 7:32 p.m.
6. I "free-hand" my ideas onto eggshells, but decided to sketch a few idea's for this one, then transfer it to the eggshell.
I drew several outlines of the eggshell, onto tracing paper and sketched different idea's into each one and decided which one I wanted to use.
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7. As soon as the glued tissue-patches covering the holes, have dried completely, you can either "free-hand" your chosen pattern onto the eggshell or trace it.
If you want to trace your pattern, you can use a method I'm sure everyone's done before. Start by "roughly" cutting out your pattern. Leaving very little edging around it, so it will lay on the curve of the egg as flatly as possible. See photo below. (You might have a pattern that needs to have little slits cut in it, so it'll lay better.)
Turn the tracing paper pattern over with the "wrong" side of the sketch UP.
Use the edge of your pencil lead and "shade" along the outline of your sketch. This turns it into a sort of carbon-paper. (^:
Tape the pattern (right side up) to the shell (the shaded lines will now be on the shell.)
Lightly draw over your pattern on the right side. And your pattern will be transferred to the eggshell.
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8. Your pattern is now on the eggshell. Clear as mud?
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9. It's best to use white thread, so it does not show up against a white egg. But for the purpose of showing you how to glue the thread on, I used blue in the photo below.
As for the length of thread ... use whatever length is comfortable for you. Personally, I like a good 45 inches of thread.
I was taught to knot only one side, leaving the other end loose. I don't remember why. (^:
I "bite" off the end of the thread I'm going to glue down, so it won't be such a "blunt" ending, since a bead might have to be glued right on top of it.
Always start your beading in the middle of your egg-shell, but never in the middle of the pattern. Why? Because that was the way the woman taught me. (^:
Glue down about an inch of thread, so it will be "anchored good." Let it dry completely ... this is important!
(As soon as I took this photo, I pulled the blue thread off and started over with white thread.)
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10. When first starting out, get 4 or 5 beads onto your thread.
Squeeze out a very thin line of glue ... just enough for the 4 or 5 beads to lay on.
Let them dry, so that you have a good "anchor."
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11. Gently pull your thread around the egg-shell, to use as a guide, to make a lightly-drawn line all the way around the middle.
You will follow this line to make sure the first row of beads are glued as straight as possible.
NOTE: Notice that the bottom arrow is pointing at where I glued down my "starting point of thread." It is crooked. I'm sorry about that. I wasn't paying enough attention, I guess.
Didn't even notice it, till I was editing my photo's. That it is not straight, will not hurt anything. But you want to make sure the line you draw around the shell IS straight. I hope this doesn't confuse anyone.
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