My Little Egg Heads

Picture
Florence
My egg heads all started in the kitchen of the lady I cook for.  It was just before Christmas, and I was baking cookies.  I am a chronic re-user...finding a use for anything I can before I throw it out.  My creative eye can see the potential of almost anything.  In this case I decided to blow the eggs instead of cracking them. This is done by poking a small hole in each end of the egg...being careful not to let any pieces of shell get into the egg itself.  I have found a steak knife works best, as it has the sharpest point of any knife in the kitchen.  I just give a little tap on the end of the egg with the tip of the knife, then pry loose the little piece of shell that fractures.  I do this to both ends, making sure to puncture the membrane inside, as well as puncture the yolk, other wise you could burst an eardrum trying to blow out the egg!  I place the smallest hole against my mouth and blow, while the egg slowly oozes out the other side into a small dish.  I rinse the eggs by submerging them in a bowl of warm sudsy water, shaking the soapy water around before blowing it out, as well.  I then let them dry in an egg carton.
   I use everything from yarn to Sculpey to make the hair, but my favorite material is sheep wool.  The curly ends of untouched fleece is the best.  I believe this can be found on the internet and is often sold for Santa beards, etc.  The lady in orange, above has braids made from the curly ends of my sister's sheep fleece.  I gently hand wash these in a bit of warm soapy water and dry flat between two towels.  Clothing and hats are made from scraps of fabric.  I have recently started buying wool sweaters at thrift stores for about a dollar.  There is enough material in one sweater to clothe dozens upon dozens of egg heads.  I used the cuff of an orange sweater for the sweater neck on the gal above.  Her hat is made from a few long pieces of colorful ribbon, twisted together.  I squirted some hot glue on the crown of her head, and started coiling the ribbon onto the glue, securing the ends in the back.  Her face was drawn with a scrap booking marker, except for the cheeks, which required me to draw on my fingertip with the marker before smearing it into her face.
   I will sometimes tap a hole where the mouth will be...and this gives the effect of the egg head singing.  I have made most of mine this way as Christmas carolers.  You never quite know how the mouth will turn out, so I do the mouth before anything else.
   The great part is, the egg shells are free...so if you goof, just move on to the next.  I stock pile shells so that when the mood strikes to make some, I don't have to figure out what to do with the contents of the eggs I would have to empty to get the shells.
   Please send me pictures of your own egg heads!