ArtFire

A hand sculpted dolphin races the waves on top of this absolutely gorgeous hinged polymer clay egg complete with pewter dolphin stand.

Yes.. it's a real egg. Now covered inside and out with clay but yes indeed, there is a chicken egg inside all that clay. They make great forms and in my opinion makes this a more unique item knowing there is in fact a real egg shell inside. Not plastic, not wood. Real egg shell.

The many layers of clay makes the egg very strong. Don't be afraid to use it. (They make a great box for a ring or special pair of earrings.)

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Now before you buy. There are a few issues.
In fact I had planned to keep this in "the collection of the artist."
I think no artist is ever really happy with a piece. We all find fault with everything. Every teacher I ever had said do NOT point out the mistakes. That once you do that's all anyone will see. Say nothing and no one would notice.
And I bet if you saw this egg you would say wow.


But... The very nature of on line stores, oopsies are not so easy to spot. And I don't want anyone being disappointed. So... despite what all my teachers have advised, I'm about to point out what I think are it's flaws.

First... I don't like how this closes. I had issues getting the hinge in right so consequently the seam isn't as flush when closed as I'd like. Not bad, but not perfect. It's a stupid technical mistake. I put the hinge in before that pearly rim was added. Totally forgetting about the thickness of that rim making it impossible to close.
I took a sharp blade, shaved the rim little by little and got it so it closes, but it's not as nice a seal as I'd like.

Next.... I wanted the dolphin and wave to be straight but... they are set at a slight angle when you open the egg. Again, this is a little thing but it annoys me. I had the hinge in before doing all that sculpting and it wasn't until it was all done before I realized it's not quite straight facing front.
Again, unless you actually open the egg no one will know.

Well... yea. Another little thing that bugs me no end. I bought the stand before setting out to make this egg. Only after it was done did I go get the stand. Sure wish I had the dolphin facing the other way. "Swimming" in the same direction as the ones in the base.
Oh well. As I said, it's a little thing.

Finally, this egg is very light. Actually top heavy. A previous hinged egg I made I thought to add a big ball of clay to the base to add some weight.
What happened here is sort of a happy accident.
"scrap" clay comes from cane ends. Those are always a lost cause. So I run them through my clay machine and blend them into a ball of solid color. Even ugly colors can be used as forms and such.
Well every once in awhile, during blending, I get a pattern that is just too cool to mush into one solid color. And that's what happened here. The inside has a really neat striped pattern. (See the second photo.) And I just didn't want to cover that up.
This isn't a mistake really, though if I were to do this again, I'd have put the ball of weight clay in first, then lined it.
Oh well. Live and learn.
Meanwhile, there is no way to open this and set it in the stand opened. You have to have it in your hand to open.
However, closed, as in the first photo, is probably how it would be displayed anyway. Just pick it up to open.

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So there it sat. On my shelf for weeks. But I have to say, it IS pretty. The surface is made by first mixing layers of clays. Translucents, dyed translucent, pearl clays, silver leaf! And when slices of that block are applied to a surface, smoothed, baked, sanded, buffed and glazed, the effect is just stunning.
I took a close up shot of this, see the last image.

And my little dolphin sculpting I personally think came out pretty danged good. I used a translucent blue for the waves. Got a little carried away with waves but I think it works. After I looked at this on my shelf long enough, well... It's too nice to hoard. Even with a few little annoying things I wish I did different.
This is a unique, and gorgeous piece.
You will not be disappointed at all.

polymer clay, chicken egg, pewter egg stand