Plans for new work in Balancing Acts series

Eggs are little packets of life and ever since I was a very small child, I was fascinated by their cool, smooth, beautiful exteriors and loved my job of gathering them from our henhouse. As I got older and spent more time wandering our ten acres in Montana, I found countless wild bird's nests both on the ground and in trees. I found hatched out blue bird eggs and wondered at the thin membranes that the little birds had punched through on their way out of the hard exterior.

We hatched chicken eggs in an old silver incubator that looked like a space ship. A couple of days before they hatched, the peeps from the little chicks inside became noticeable to the human ear. My Mother, her face lit up in amusement, holding a small aqua egg up to my ear so that I could hear the tiny sounds from within, is one of my favorite memories.

As I got older, as it is with many children, the simple joys of childhood are deposed by the more "important", more adult concerns of the world. However, my fascination with eggs never subsided.

Here now we have a rough sketch for the next piece in my Encaustic Series, "Balancing Acts", a lovely little Red Wing Blackbird's Egg on the spoon end and a speckled Western Meadowlark's Egg on the back end of the spoon. Of course, the thread that holds the spoon will be longer, and I plan on changing the way that the string is held. I am hoping to get started on this piece Monday when my children head back to school from Spring Break.

Looking forward to seeing how this piece progresses as it promises to challenge my skills with wax.