Carol McEvoy
Tampa, FL

The Egyptian Egg

The lighted stained glass egg was modeled after the Faberge eggs and finished using the traditional Tiffany lamp method.Inspiration: My inspiration for this piece was the Faberge eggs made famous by Czar Nicholas. While I never expected a Camel - I thought that I could work anything into the design - given the fact that it was not too far out! I then decided that a portion of the piece should be mosaic because this form of art has been found in the Middle East dating back to the late 7th century. The colors used then included dominant shades of green and blue with accents of red, silver, gray, mauve, black and white - colors which I tried to incorporate into this piece. The egg design is of the flowering Egyptian Lotus as it rises from the life-giving water. The lotus is an ideal symbol for Egypt because of it’s intense symbolism for the ancient Egyptians. Ancient Egyptian myth depicts the original dawn of mankind as a human emerging from a lotus flower. Lotus flowers appear with royalty on Egyptian wall paintings - frequently they are being sniffed. A modern analogy compares the lotus flower with its long stem to the delta and Nile river of lower Egypt. The lotus flower has been featured extensively throughout the art of ancient Egypt and there are endless lotus designs on Egyptian artifacts.The border tiles on each side of the base form an ancient Egyptian symbol - the water. The panels on the four sides of the base represent the religious importance of the camels which carried the magi to Bethlehem, camels as they might have been in the ark, the usefulness of camels used in caravans across the deserts of America, Australia and the middle east; and the origin of this beautiful beast - the ship of the desert - among the sand and pyramids of Egypt.

Construction:

The egg was created using a method similar to that used in lamp making. The egg was soldered into four pieces, separated from the mold and soldered into a top and bottom to allow for the installation of the electrical components for lighting the egg from within. The base on which the egg rests is made of hardwoods and primed with white stain block. 186 fused items containing 613 pieces of glass and stained glass mosaic pieces were applied to base with adhesive and finished with both black and white grout.

Glass Methods Used:

Direct Mosaic on the four sides of the base.

Copper foil for the egg, both lid and bottom.

Slumped glass for the petals of the lotus.

Fused glass for the tiles on the base, the ark animals, and dragonfly.

Copper foil overlay for the band around the egg.

Statistics:

Height: 26" tall

Width: 12"

Depth: 12"

Number of pieces of glass: 1,900 pieces

(Base 1,265, base top 5, egg bottom 482, egg lid 160, dragonfly 9)

Hours: 238 hours (does not include research, driving or shopping time)

Theme Items:

The theme items provided were used in the following locations or methods:

Additional Items:

In addition to the items provided, the following were also used in construction:

10 additional camels ordered from Warner-Crivellaro

5- additional flat back jewels in various colors ordered from Warner-Crivellaro. (2 amber, 2 purple, and 1 red)

1,900 glass pieces of various colors

187 fused pieces containing 626 pieces of cut fusible glass.

4 clear glass 2" marbles for the feet on the base.

8 pounds of 60/40 solder

3 ½ rolls of 7/32" copper foil

Scallop copper foil

½" copper foil

5 feet of longleaf pine

1 square foot of a/c ¾" plywood

Various screws and nails.

Kiltz stain block to seal the wood with.

White caulk on the box.

Liquid nails to attach the fused pieces and mosaic pieces to the box.

Black grout

White grout

Electrical cord, switch, bulb and fittings to light the egg.

2 vase caps

Casserole base to support the egg purchased at Goodwill for $.25.

Glass used in project:

SP305IR White iridized for egg shell

Y4444HS Green combinations for the stems and lily pads

AR0042C White opal and pink streaky for lotus petals

BE2310 White opal and cranberry pink streaky for lotus petals

K123LTRIP Medium blue, royal blue wispy light ripple for water.

SP317-6 Medium amber and white streaky for sand on base

SP337-1 Pale blue and white wispy for sky on base.

SP1009 Black opal for night sky

AR016 White with peach for pyramids on base

Various amounts of various colors of Spectrum for base mosaic, Small amounts of Spectrum System 96 for fused items.

Cost:

$183.81 Supplies and materials used in construction

$ 92.57 Miscellaneous costs (shipping, handling, reference, etc)

$276.38 Total purchased items