| Products and Services for Egg Carvers and Egg Decorators |
Many parents work extra hard in order to provide their own children the
many things they themselves were unable to enjoy as youngsters. I've
dreamed for such a long time of being able to provide egg carvers the things
that I wished I'd had when I was starting out over 20 years ago. I had
absolutely nobody to help me and didn't even know an egg decorator in my
state, let alone someone who carved eggs. It was unheard of and yet had
already entrenched itself in my blood... a passion as strong today as it was
back then. I even went to the Library of Congress to see if anything had
ever been written about egg carving, but came up totally dry. And, since no
ratites (ostrich, rhea, emu) were being bred in the United States, the price to
get their eggs from Africa or Australia was way beyond my means. All of
my children were still at home and I had but a few burs that I hoped would
last forever because the necessary funds weren't there to replace them. I
had no clue what burs to use and only thin, store-bought chicken eggs and a
few goose eggs to work with.
The #699 tapered cross-cut fissure bur looked like one that would work for
making holes in shells, so that's what I did; I made lots of holes in lots of
shells. I'm anal enough that I didn't have problems breaking eggs, I just
constantly questioned whether there were better ones to use out of the
thousands of burs available to dentists. And yet, I had nobody to talk to,
nobody to ask. I devoured books about egg decorating, available at our
library, but I saw beautiful creations with no mention of carving at all. I
didn't even know where to get supplies because the ones available from the
manufacturer of my drill seemed over priced. Right from the beginning, I
tried to talk my drill manufacturer into allowing me to do a newsletter in
which their customers, whose numbers were growing, could share ideas. I
was turned down flat which was a shame because there were finally other
egg carvers out there and the company would not tell me who they were.
So, I continued to carve, learning by trial and error for several more years,
until one day my parents - who have always been supportive and are still,
even though in their 80's - my best friends, called to say they saw a woman
at a show in my hometown who was carving eggs! I packed up all my eggs
in minutes and headed south, where I met the only other carver I'd ever
seen, Beverly Harder. We talked eggs and shared our trial and error
discoveries until her customers were backed up and then we had to break to
get our breath back. When she got caught up we were off and running
again. Over the years, as I learned more and larger eggs became plentiful,
Beverly and I would get together to both talk and to do eggs. Her style never
changed but I was trying all kinds of new things. As I've said elsewhere on
this site, as soon as my first website went up, I was inundated with
questions from people who were fascinated by this unique art, so I started
publishing The Eggshell Sculptor and Bev was one of my first subscribers
and kept renewing until she lost her battle with lung cancer. Many of our
talks were about there being no resources out there for carvers besides my
magazine and it was then that I decided to be able to provide people a place
to come to get their questions answered, to get the equipment and help
many things they themselves were unable to enjoy as youngsters. I've
dreamed for such a long time of being able to provide egg carvers the things
that I wished I'd had when I was starting out over 20 years ago. I had
absolutely nobody to help me and didn't even know an egg decorator in my
state, let alone someone who carved eggs. It was unheard of and yet had
already entrenched itself in my blood... a passion as strong today as it was
back then. I even went to the Library of Congress to see if anything had
ever been written about egg carving, but came up totally dry. And, since no
ratites (ostrich, rhea, emu) were being bred in the United States, the price to
get their eggs from Africa or Australia was way beyond my means. All of
my children were still at home and I had but a few burs that I hoped would
last forever because the necessary funds weren't there to replace them. I
had no clue what burs to use and only thin, store-bought chicken eggs and a
few goose eggs to work with.
The #699 tapered cross-cut fissure bur looked like one that would work for
making holes in shells, so that's what I did; I made lots of holes in lots of
shells. I'm anal enough that I didn't have problems breaking eggs, I just
constantly questioned whether there were better ones to use out of the
thousands of burs available to dentists. And yet, I had nobody to talk to,
nobody to ask. I devoured books about egg decorating, available at our
library, but I saw beautiful creations with no mention of carving at all. I
didn't even know where to get supplies because the ones available from the
manufacturer of my drill seemed over priced. Right from the beginning, I
tried to talk my drill manufacturer into allowing me to do a newsletter in
which their customers, whose numbers were growing, could share ideas. I
was turned down flat which was a shame because there were finally other
egg carvers out there and the company would not tell me who they were.
So, I continued to carve, learning by trial and error for several more years,
until one day my parents - who have always been supportive and are still,
even though in their 80's - my best friends, called to say they saw a woman
at a show in my hometown who was carving eggs! I packed up all my eggs
in minutes and headed south, where I met the only other carver I'd ever
seen, Beverly Harder. We talked eggs and shared our trial and error
discoveries until her customers were backed up and then we had to break to
get our breath back. When she got caught up we were off and running
again. Over the years, as I learned more and larger eggs became plentiful,
Beverly and I would get together to both talk and to do eggs. Her style never
changed but I was trying all kinds of new things. As I've said elsewhere on
this site, as soon as my first website went up, I was inundated with
questions from people who were fascinated by this unique art, so I started
publishing The Eggshell Sculptor and Bev was one of my first subscribers
and kept renewing until she lost her battle with lung cancer. Many of our
talks were about there being no resources out there for carvers besides my
magazine and it was then that I decided to be able to provide people a place
to come to get their questions answered, to get the equipment and help
necessary for them to start carving... in short, a one-stop location where they knew that they could get
anything they needed. I became a dealer for several drills, in case one met their needs better than another,
and even referred them to manufacturers I didn't work with if I thought their needs could be better met there.
My dream is now becoming a reality with this website. Carvers can now get the teaching they need, stands,
burs, domes, drills... It's by no means a profitable venture which will allow me to quit work, but that wasn't
ever my goal. I'm thrilled to hear when someone is getting into egg carving, whether they interact with me in
the process or not. Our art is still considered a craft by the people who could do us the most good, especially
gallery owners. And the more talented people who put bur to eggshell, the more it helps all of us to be
successful. That is my true dream.
anything they needed. I became a dealer for several drills, in case one met their needs better than another,
and even referred them to manufacturers I didn't work with if I thought their needs could be better met there.
My dream is now becoming a reality with this website. Carvers can now get the teaching they need, stands,
burs, domes, drills... It's by no means a profitable venture which will allow me to quit work, but that wasn't
ever my goal. I'm thrilled to hear when someone is getting into egg carving, whether they interact with me in
the process or not. Our art is still considered a craft by the people who could do us the most good, especially
gallery owners. And the more talented people who put bur to eggshell, the more it helps all of us to be
successful. That is my true dream.
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| Gary LeMaster ◦ 415 Terrace Road ◦ Iowa City ◦ IA ◦ 52245 Ph. (319) 338-2094 Fax (319) 339-9133 Email eggzotica@mchsi.com |
| Website created by Gary LeMaster • All contents © 1996 - 2008 by Gary LeMaster and The Eggshell Sculptor |
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