Eggshell crafts: photo examples of the best works and a description of their manufacture

Creativity for all generations

Making work from eggshells has many advantages. Children develop fine motor skills, and for middle and old age, an important plus is the availability of material. This hobby can be done for fun..

And if you have extensive experience in decorating, then your work may well be successful among handmade lovers and even bring money..

Origin

Shell decoration is usually associated with the tradition of decorating Easter eggs. And carving (carving) was popular in China in ancient times. It is believed there that the world originated from eggs. Therefore, they were given for any holidays. In the museums of this country, you can still find works of the 13-15th century..

Now shell carving has a completely different look, it has become more complex and well thought out. All this thanks to the tools, they work with them to create the most detailed drawing. But you can make simple crafts for children from eggshells..

What is made from egg shell

The material is considered environmentally friendly, so it can be used in creative activities. The shell has a sufficiently hard surface that allows you to make such crafts out of it as:

panels in craquelure technique;
semantic images;
mosaic on any surfaces;
decoration for vessels.

The technology of actions is different in all cases. For example, preparing a wooden surface is very different from a plastic one. The topcoat can also vary. Only the material used for the base remains similar..

The history of the appearance of carving

It is very difficult to determine the exact date of the emergence of the art of decorating eggshells. It can be assumed that this art form appeared with the tradition of the peoples of the world to paint Easter eggs..

Some sources indicate that the first eggshell carving refers to the art of Ancient China. This skill was called “carving”. In museums in China, to this day, there have been preserved exhibits from the shell, decorated with carvings. These works were made back in the distant XIII-XVIII centuries. eke. In this country, it was believed that all earthly creatures emerged from an egg, so crafts made from this material were presented to various celebrations..

Today, with the development of the technological process, new improved tools have appeared that can transfer a drawing to an oval surface with microscopic accuracy..

Chinese carving and Easter traditions

It is difficult to say how long ago masters and artists began to use eggshells in their work. With a high degree of probability, this is due to the tradition of decorating Easter eggs, which exists among many peoples of the world..

Some sources say that the art of eggshell carving originated in ancient China. In this country, where it was believed that the world originated from an egg, it was customary to give fancy eggs for weddings, birthdays and other holidays. Chinese museums keep “egg” works dating back to the 13-15th centuries.

Thanks to modern technology, eggshell carving has become more sophisticated. Today’s tools allow you to transfer a conceived drawing onto a rounded surface with microscopic precision..

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However, along with “high art” eggshells are used for simple children’s crafts, decorating surfaces.

What can be made from this material

As a first step, you can try decorating your eggs with mother-of-pearl. Add painting or decoupage on a white surface of the material.

Embroidery is gaining popularity. Moreover, they use various additional means: ribbons, beads. Such works look original and do not leave anyone indifferent.

Many needlewomen create small grass pots from this material. It turns out unusual, simple and practical.

Eggshell Crafts

Using eggshells as decorative elements, it is easy to make various crafts.

Crackle mosaic

An excellent gift or decoration for the room will be an egg shell panel. To create it, you will need a plastic plate, soap, a drawing, a pencil, clothespins (for fastening), acrylic paints, baking parchment or tracing paper, a permanent marker, a thick brush.

See also: Master class on creating a three-dimensional tree from paper

Stages of panel creation:

Take a plastic plate (diameter 30-40 cm), apply black acrylic paint to the surface. Let dry.
Transfer the printed or drawn picture to tracing paper using a pencil.
Turn tracing paper or parchment paper and rub with soap.
Place the paper on the surface with the soapy side. Attach the parchment to the plate with clothespins. Trace all lines carefully.
Then remove the clothespins and remove the paper. Soap lines will be clearly visible on the black surface..
Circle the resulting lines with a marker. Take more than one marker, as at any time they may refuse to work.
Prepare raw egg shells for work. Rinse it thoroughly with water, remove the film, dry.
Paint the shell in the desired shades with a thick brush in several thin layers. Dry.
Using a small wooden stick or toothpick, apply glue to part of the surface.
Glue the shell of the desired color with PVA glue. Start the design of the panel from the edges, smoothly moving into the middle. First, the buds, leaves, stems are decorated, and then the background. It is necessary to glue the shell along the edges of the plate, then near the parts, while leaving room for the outline.
The gaps between the fragments should be kept to a minimum..
After complete drying, varnish is applied at a distance of 25-30 cm.After leaving the craft for a couple of hours in the fresh air.

An original and beautiful picture is ready! A little effort, patience and you can make such a wonderful product..

Eggshell souvenirs

Modern people give eggs for Easter. They are pre-painted, ornaments are applied. Gilding is used for decoration. Today, painting, embroidery with ribbons, beads are popular. Such fragile robots delight.

The shells are used as plant pots. A beautiful composition is presented to relatives and friends.

Original ideas for children’s creativity

Children are madly in love to create something with their own hands. Today, on the Internet and in children’s magazines, there are a huge number of original ideas for various crafts..

Eggshell crafts for children:

New Year’s toys. It is much more pleasant for children to decorate the tree with their own toys. You can make various animals, fish, cartoon characters from a whole shell. For example: a piglet, a clown, a hedgehog, a hare, characters from the Smeshariki cartoon. In the work, you can use various materials for decoration: rhinestones, beads, beads, colored ribbons.
Easter eggs. On the eve of Easter, Easter eggs can be made with children. Moreover, you can decorate them with paints, plasticine, decoupage, cross-stitch.
Application. Appliques are made from small shells with preschoolers and younger students. Attach them to thick paper or cardboard with glue. To create a panel, it is necessary to apply a drawing with a pencil on a sheet of paper in advance or print it on a printer, lubricate small areas of the picture with PVA and glue the material, after complete drying, paint over with gouache paints and varnish for strength.
Pots for flowers and other vegetation. An original craft made of egg material will be a pot for small plants, which will perfectly decorate the interior of a children’s room. The vessel can be decorated with drawings, decoupage, embroidery with ribbons, beads, rhinestones and other materials..

More complex work can be done with children, only kids will need the help of an adult.

Frame

Small shells can be used to design a regular photo frame, giving it a unique look. Shell particles are glued to a store-bought glass frame, or to a homemade one made of thick cardboard.

If you liked the idea of making crafts from natural materials, go for it! Everything will definitely work out!

Mosaic cockerel

The next hack is more complicated. For her, you will need to get plasticine, a jar of yogurt, colored cardboard and multi-colored shells from Easter eggs.

A jar of yogurt will be our base. We put it with the hole down and cover it tightly with a layer of plasticine, giving it a more rounded shape..
After that, we take the shell from the Easter eggs, the more colors you have, the more elegant the cockerel will turn out, and we begin to glue the pieces of the shell to the plasticine base, laying out the mosaic.
With a mosaic we form a lighter “abdomen”, a darker and more colorful plumage.
In the end, we make eyes with two large beads, and the beak can either be molded from plasticine or cut out of cardboard.
We cut out feathers for the tail from multi-colored cardboard – there should be four to five of them, and from red cardboard we cut out a comb and a beard.
Our mosaic Easter cockerel is ready!

Decoupage technology on the shell

We will describe a master class on making a wooden box made of eggshells.

Using sandpaper, sand the surface of a wooden product, then degrease it with alcohol.
We coat a small section of the box with a glue base and glue fragments of eggshell onto it. In the course of work, we push them apart at a certain distance from each other..
In this way we glue the entire surface of the box, apply a layer of PVA glue on top.
Next, the craft must be painted white in several layers..
The next step is gluing napkins to decoupage.
In the work, three-layer napkins should be used, and specifically only their top layer with an ornament.
Apply PVA glue to the surface of the workpiece. On large or rounded objects, it is advisable to apply a napkin cut into several parts, and apply an adhesive base on top.
So the box is pasted over on each side. Then the craft is given time to dry and then varnished..

Mosaic and decoupage

Many masters work in decoupage technique. Instead of a special varnish, to create the effect of craquelure – old cracks, craftsmen use shells. Small particles are glued to the base (vase, box, board, thick paper, bottle) using PVA glue. To get an original, neat drawing, you must carefully select the particles so that the distance between them is as small as possible.

After the surface dries well, acrylic paint is applied to it, and then primed. When everything is ready, you can safely glue napkins (usually three-layer ones) or various stickers. With the help of paint, small details can be painted and covered with a fixative. The varnish helps prevent moisture from entering the craft and maintains its integrity for years to come..

From small particles, you can make a chic mosaic. To make a panel, you first need to degrease the surface, prime it. Then paint the shell in different colors. Draw a picture on the surface where the future mosaic will be located. Then glue the colored fragments with PVA glue. After drying, coat with varnish for strength and beauty.

Shell toys are not that durable compared to crackle mosaics.

Embroidery on shell

A hobby will become a source of joy. Embroidery on shells is not an easy process. Experience is required to obtain a beautiful product.

A master class on crafts from eggshells will tell you how to do the job. The first time, the product may not work, since a fragile material is used. But over time, it will be possible to create real masterpieces..

A drawing is applied to the prepared shell, and then holes are made in the right places. It is necessary to clearly imagine where the needle will enter, exit to obtain a certain fragment of the picture..

It is necessary to consider how many times the tape will pass through the hole. If initially its size turns out to be small, you will have to expand it..

Lines from a simple pencil are removed with an abrasive. Kitchen powder is used for this. Then you can gently get to work..

Eggshell candlestick

Another very original way to recycle eggshells is to turn them into mini candlesticks that will light up your home in a unique way..

To make this craft, simply melt the candle you have at home and when the wax is liquid, pour it inside the eggshell. To get the best effect, it is best to cut the shell in about half..

Decoration of a vase or casket

You will need a wooden item. First, it is processed using simple sandpaper to make the surface smooth. Next, a layer of primer is applied to the product. Then the object is covered with any color, given that it will be visible between the mosaics. So, patterned contours remain on the surface of the product..

The next step is to glue the crushed shells. Remaining glue can be removed with a clean cloth. When the product dries, it is advisable to apply a varnish base to it. In the end, it remains to glue the decorative elements..

Decorative bottle

Making such a home decoration is not difficult from eggshells. The first step is to prepare the bottle. It must be perfectly clean, because all paper and glue residues are removed from it..

On a dry and fat-free surface, it is necessary to gradually glue pieces of napkins, then lay out a shell mosaic on it and glue it over with napkins again. At the end, a thin layer of primer is applied. The craft should dry well. If desired, the egg shell can be easily dyed in any color..

Decorate the eggshell

On Easter, people are often seen decorating eggs in various ways to mark this special day on the Christian calendar. But besides Easter, you can also use eggshells to create a beautiful decoration..

To make an egg shell craft, you must blow the contents out. When everything is ready, you can paint the shell with a variety of paints and brushes, the design is entirely up to your personal taste..

Eggshell Crafts

Eggshell is considered an economical, lightweight, and most importantly environmentally friendly material in the work. Even the smallest needlewomen can make crafts from egg shells with their own hands. Before starting work, you must prepare all the necessary tools and materials.

Stages of preparing the shell for work:

Rinse the raw egg thoroughly with warm water. You can degrease it with alcohol or throw it into boiling soda water in advance;
If a whole shell is needed for work, then you need to make 2 holes in the egg at opposite ends and blow out the contents, rinse thoroughly, dry and fill with glue to connect the smallest cracks. It is necessary to twist the egg in different directions so that the PVA or varnish completely spreads over the entire wall of the oval.
For the mosaic, the cracked shell is beaten, washed, dried, a thin film is cleaned, the surface is covered with various colors of acrylic paint, and dried again.

See also: Crafts in the form of animals with your own hands from different materials

It is necessary to carefully consider the stage of material preparation, since the reliability and strength of the future product will directly depend on this..

Flower pot decoration

In every house there is an empty flower pot. It is easy to make a decorative item for the home from a similar item using a simple eggshell.

In creative work, glue (on a glass surface) and shells are useful. We apply the adhesive composition to the container and carefully attach a small shell. After the glue dries, the craft should be decorated with acrylic, or decorated using decoupage technique.

Children’s craft “Star”

Eggshell crafts can be offered as a home activity for children from the age of three. They will definitely like the original technique.

For the lesson you need to prepare:

eggshell,
cardboard,
PVA glue,
dye,
sandpaper.

Eggshells are recommended to be washed and chopped.

Operating procedure.

Cut a star out of cardboard. The template is easy to make yourself.
Paint the blank if white cardboard is used.
After the paint has dried, cover the workpiece with glue and carefully place the shell fragments, carefully pressing them.
Remove excess glue using a paper towel.
After drying, coat the product with varnish. Alternatively, you can paint with acrylic paint or gouache, and then apply varnish..

In a similar way, you can make not only an asterisk, but also any other simple figure..

Tableware decoration

Unusual interior items are obtained if you glue over ordinary household utensils with fragments of eggshell: a glass, bottle, vase or plate.

For work, you must use universal glue, acrylic helmet or gouache and transparent varnish.

Before starting work, the item chosen for decoration must be thoroughly washed and dried. The surface is covered with glue and the pieces of eggshell are placed on it. The smaller the elements, the more interesting the product will look in the end..

Bijouterie

Using small pieces of eggshell, it is easy to make stylish jewelry. In order to make earrings, you will need special blanks.

Glue is applied to them, a mosaic of small fragments is laid out, then painted in accordance with the artistic concept and varnished.

Using eggshells and instructions on how to make a craft from the shell, you can make wall panels or decorative boxes. After gluing with a shell, the product can be decorated with art painting and varnished.

Seedling container

If, during cooking, you do not break the eggs in half, but make neat holes in the upper part and pour the yolk and white through them, then you will have empty shells that can be used as a container for seedlings. Then you need to fill in the soil and plant seeds in such “pots” – they perfectly replace plastic jars from yogurt, which are used for these purposes by many gardeners.

This is all the more convenient because when planting in the ground, the shells do not need to be removed: you can place the seedlings in the soil with them, because the shell is a biodegradable product.

Eggshell seeds

A good way to dispose of eggshells is to turn them into suitable containers for growing plants or seeds..

It’s also a good choice for families as you can give kids the chance to act as mini gardeners and learn how nature works..

To do this, you only need to chop off the top, pour out the contents of the egg, rinse the shell, being careful not to break it further, and then add the soil and seeds you want to grow. It is so simple!

To add personality to the egg, you can paint a friendly face on the egg, as shown in the egg shell craft photo, or decorate it to your liking.!

Eggshell tulips

These do-it-yourself eggshell crafts are suitable for older children or adults. Small children should use cardboard or foam egg boxes.

Stain the halves of the eggshell with dye, make sure the shell is completely submerged so that the inside of the egg is also stained (you must be sure that the membrane inside the egg is removed).

Allow to dry, then cut a hole in the bottom and carefully insert the straw. Put in a vase and you will have a beautiful composition of eggshell tulips.

Ostrich egg shell carving

Eggshell carving cannot be called a widespread art form, but the results of this work are amazing: in the hands of a skilled craftsman, openwork, lace patterns are obtained, and sometimes even whole paintings.

They usually work with an electric woodcarving tool or a special knife. The second option is used in cases where the egg is not pierced through, and a volumetric pattern is created by scraping.

Often, carved lamps are used as night lights: their light can create incredible patterns on the walls and ceiling..

Ostrich egg shell thickness

To choose the required attachment, you need to know how thick the shell of ostrich eggs is. Depending on the subspecies, this figure ranges from 2 to 2.5 mm. For comparison, the thickness of a chicken egg shell is only 0.3-0.4 mm. The shell of goose eggs is slightly stronger – 0.55 mm. But the ostrich, undoubtedly, on this indicator noticeably win.

Ostrich egg shell carving can be done at home. The main thing is to complete a sketch, make a sketch directly on the shell, and then feel free to get to work. Perhaps a beautiful pattern will not work the first time, but practice and accuracy will help here – over time, crafts will turn out “excellently”.

Craft ideas for children’s creativity

Another festive solution: egg shell crafts for kids. Christmas tree toys are an interesting alternative to toys from the store. These can be figures of various animals, birds, fish, cartoon characters. The very shape in the form of a volumetric elongated ball suggests a solution.

Crafts for children

For example, if you glue a cap on the PVA with a cone, rouge your cheeks, draw eyes and glue a paper corrugated collar from below, you get a clown. On a lace and on a Christmas tree.

If you cut out fins and a lush tail, draw gills and bulging eyes, decorate with sparkles, rhinestones or gold paint – you get a magic fish from a fairy tale.

The piglet is in front, and the tail is in a ring at the back – the piglet. This can be done with plasticine..

If you use an acrylic outline for hard surfaces and draw a beautiful openwork pattern, glue beads, beads, a clasp for jewelry, you will get a more sophisticated Christmas tree decoration.

Ideas for decorating decorative eggs

How else can you decorate homemade eggs? Variants: Decoupage is an excellent technique and suits many crafts. And on top of the decoupage, you can highlight the contours of gold paint for stained glass:

If you wrap the blank with newspapers, they are usually primed or painted on top. Try not to use any of this! Leave it as it is and add some lace or mesh and a button or small wooden figurine. It will be magical:

If you own a molding made of polymer clay, plastic or cold porcelain, then it will be just fine to decorate the craft with small flowers:

Beautiful gold fabric, ribbons and beads are always relevant:

You can easily see for yourself that the simplest materials look much more spectacular than expensive types of paper and fabric! Plain jute rope will be a great decoration for egg blanks:

In principle, any of the eggs shown above can become Easter if desired – after all, the egg is an indispensable symbol of the holiday. To diversify Easter creativity, we suggest adding Easter bunny or chicken to traditional crafts.

If you have already learned how to make a papier-mâché egg, then making this chicken will not cause difficulties – it’s almost the same thing. They pasted over a ball with newspapers. Dry and paint. Remove the ball:

Paws (feet), wings, beak and beard will be made of colored paper. Using knitting threads, build a crest, from long segments – legs:

You can insert wire into the legs, then they will bend in different ways. Attach all parts to the torso, eyes or purchased or homemade:

And here is the Easter bunny:

The working methods are the same, just cut off the top and bottom, and put the bottom on the side where the sharp end was. We glue, fill, paint, and so on! Easter cakes – like real ones:

Another option is to use toilet paper rolls or metal cans for the base. In principle, you can even not pull them out later – for strength:

Or like this: put more soaked cardboard from the same egg packaging into a glass, pour the glue, wait for it to dry, shake it out and arrange it as you wish: