Vrhnika's Easter egg

Easter eggs made in Vrhnika in Slovenia, Europa with drilling holes.

For makeing such an egg, you need:
- egg
- pencil
- ruler with circles
- drilling machnie with fine drill
- a lot of patience and time (2-3 weeks)

This easter eggs are really beautiful, special and unique. This beauty is made with filigrene drilling (punctureing) of the eggshell. You must use a special driller with a diamond point, which may remind you on a dentist torturing devices. You can use different kind of eggs, such as geese, ostrich, emu. One drilled egg can be made of 700 or even 24000 holes and it takes from 2 to 3 weeks.

Step 1: Catastrophe

The worst part is when the egg cracks and goes to pieces at the final stage and ends his life in a garbage.
When you are flying and everything goes smoothe, you must stop and take a brake, so that you do not make a mistake. If you do anything with force or too quick, you will crack the egg. This happens wery quickly, when you are comeing to the end.

Comments

[Alberta Leong]

What else can i say! Amazing intricate work! :D

[craftyv]

I am so moved by these. Can anyone tell me where to see more of this type of work. The web sites only have what we have seen here and I am hungry for more images and instructions. Please help.

[skorpijon]

Hi, search on the internet (egg shell art).
Here are some links (not in english):
http://www.vrhnika.si/?m=pages&id=73
http://www.slovenskenovice.si/novice/slovenija/vrhniski-pirh-druzi-clintona-putina
http://www.mojvideo.com/video-vrhniski-pirhi/430e3d6559f081384826
http://www.siol.net/novice/slovenija/2011/04/terankosir_fotofokus_velikonocno_jajce_v_objemu_nagljev_in_cipk.aspx
http://www.siol.net/data/fotogalerije/slovenija/2011/04/vrhniski_pirhi_3del.aspx
http://www.slomedia.it/umetniske-pirhe-z-vrhnike-imata-tudi-bill-clinton-in-japonski-cesar-video
http://www.kd.staravrhnika.si/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=67&Itemid=68
http://foto.sta.si/#!a/29413
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28EBZHMGcls

[Mihsin]

Try old TimeLife booklets at your local libraries.

[bedeboop]

These are so beautiful, very lovely to look at! Thanks for posting, just enjoy looking at them!

[Mihsin]

Do you dance like The Bedeboop and sing her famouse song too? I thought I was the only one who remembers that cartoon!

[2tautges]

You spelled "break" wrong. It should be "break" instead of "brake". You BRAKE a bicycle. You take a BREAK.

[Frederbee]

How good is your Slovenian? You must be fluent, right?

[jexter]

Hi Skorpijon,

I have another question, if you don't mind: I'm thinking of using sandpaper or emery cloth to remove the color from a brown egg before I blow it out. It seems like it would be quicker and easier with an intact egg. I can't be the first person to think of this, so I'm guessing there is a reason for not doing this?

I don't want to spend hours on an egg and then have it fall apart!

Thanks, and love your work!

jexter

[quanticchaos]

This is too much. You are an Artist!

[mary candy]

just beautiful !
I loved it.

[jexter]

Those are absolutely beautiful! Thanks so much for showing how you do it.

For the larger open areas (holes), would you start with a smaller hole and enlarge it, or drill around the area and remove a large piece of shell? And for a beginner, are lots of small holes easier (and less likely to break) than larger holes?

Thanks, and 5 stars for you!

[skorpijon]

Hi, well it is better fo start with small holes, because the eggshell is more rigid then the one with the large holes.
So, start with small holes around the area and remove the large piece, change the drill and shape the circle to be round. As you saw in the steps, you first draw a patern with a pencil and than follow this patern. I hope, I helped you with this information.

[terribug]

What if you were to blow the contents of the egg out, then fill it with wax that could be melted out after the drilling was done? I think that might strengthen the egg, and keep you from inadvertently crushing or cracking it. What do you think?

[skorpijon]

Hi, this is a great idea. Thanke you for the advice. I was thinking about the strenghtening the eggshell, but did not know, what and how to put inside and than out. Thanke you again, I will try it next time.

So, this could be your theoretical step by step procedure. I will let you publish this and I will do all the "hard" work ;)

[sires6]

It's like stippling but with a drill instead of a pen on paper.

[copilarim]

Wonderfull!!!!!

[Everlong]

Thanks so much for posting this! These look amazing!

[poofrabbit]

My goodness, these are amazing! Please tell me you entered the egg bot contest! I'd love to see these in process.

[skorpijon]

Hi,
you come on holidays to Slovenia for 1 month and you can make an easter egg yourself and hope, that you will be lucky and you will not crack it in the process ;)

[poofrabbit]

Man, I would take you up on that if I had anything that even remotely looked like a lot of money for a flight and living expenses in another country. :) I did go look on ebay to see if people sold ostrich eggs so I could try it out.

[craftyv]

These eggs are beautiful and so delicate. Could you please say a little more about the act of drilling and any tips youv'e learned. Thank You.

[skorpijon]

well, when you start, you must not be in a hurry, you must know, that it takes from 2-3 weeks when you are a pro ;) but the path to this 3 weeks is very long. When you will drill a lot of eggs, you will get the feeling for drilling.

You must also know, that the nearer the finish, bigger the risk of cracking.

Problems are also sweaty hands and concentration. That is why you drill from 1 to 2 hours max. Do not force the drill fo much (crack) or to little (nothing happens).

For a start you can begin with drilling holes in empty, closed plastic bottle or even in a soda can, so you will see, how much you press for drilling a hole in a plastic bottle.

[craftyv]

I really appreciate your reply. I will post a picture if I achieve anything vaguely acceptable but I realise a lot of time must go into getting as good as you are. Well done and thanks.

[Dream Dragon]

Not much information about tools etc, but I've done something very similar. Ordinary twist drills will make life unreasonably difficult. You should look for engraving tools and "Dental Burr" tools, especially those with a diamond based cutting surface.

Hat's off to you for your EGGcellent work though, very creative and artistic.

[bmohr]

The patience it must take. Can you say what percentage of the eggs crack? These are really awesome!

[skorpijon]

Hi, if the egg cracks, you try and save it ;) This means that you try and do it like in the 2nd picture above. The percentage depends on the people, how relaxed thay are ;)

[Biggsy]

It must take a steady hand and alot of patience.... neither of which I have... hehe well done they're beautiful

[ChrysN]

Wow they are gorgeous!

[spellspark42]

Hahaha, kako me je presenetila objava. Lepo, da tudi Slovenci objavljamo :) Lepi vrhniški pirhi. ;) Nice easter eggs xD

[depmode]

so Beautiful !!!!!

[Honus]

Those are amazing!!