we like it wild: panorama egg vase
We have always been a tad obsessed with the tiny worlds inside beautifully frosted sugar eggs. When Jill was a little girl, she got one every Easter and set it on her nightstand to peer into long after the holiday was over (much too long — once it even attracted some new inhabitants . . . ants). We thought it would be fun to make our own tiny flower world this week inspired by those classic sugar panoramas. So, like Brett and her embroidered eggs, we dug out our Dremel and did some egg carving!
CLICK HERE for the full how-to after the jump!
Materials
- large egg
- pencil
- Dremel tool with cutting wheel
- base that allows egg to sit upright
- waterproof epoxy
- decorations and hot glue (optional)
- small floral frog or floral foam that fits inside egg
- variety of tiny blossoms
- tweezers
Instructions
1. Find a large egg to create your floral scene in. We used an ostrich and a goose egg that we purchased with the insides already blown out. (You can order large empty eggs online or purchase them from specialty food stores.)
2. Draw an oval hole in pencil where you’ll carve the hole to peek inside the egg. Use the Dremel tool with a to slice the shell along the line. Take your time, and don’t use too much pressure. Try cutting on a practice egg first if you are using a more expensive egg for your vase.
3. Since we used shells that had the insides blown out already, there were holes in the bottoms. To make the “vase” watertight, we used a waterproof plumbing epoxy to seal the hole and attach the egg to a wood base with a small dip carved into it. You could also try cutting the shell without draining the insides first to eliminate the drainage hole, and then sit the egg in a pretty bowl or shallow cup.
4. Once you have positioned your egg upright in a holder, you can decide if you want to decorate it. We kept it simple and used hot glue to attach some around the edge of the shell to mimic the frosting edge on sugar eggs.
5. Place a small in the bottom of the shell to hold up your stems and add water.
6. Create your tiny flower scene. You don’t need much — just the most petite blossoms! Try to create a variation of height and texture to make it look like a landscape. We used tweezers to pop in lilac, viburnum, muscari, fritillaria, columbine, forget-me-nots and scented geranium.
Amazing! I love that so much.
I’ve seen many cute Easter projects but this is really the *best* one I’ve seen. These little creations would be great all year round!
Wow! These are beautiful!
absolutely gorgeous, not sure i could cut the opening out so perfectly!
These are brilliant.
So delicate with a real sense of wonderment about them…
Super pleasing.
What a CUTE idea! Looks so beautiful!!
wow, that’s GREAT ! Seriously, i wanna get one of this for my grandpa as an Easter gift.
I love this… too bad I’m way too clumsy to pull it off. I tried doing something similar to this with directions from Martha Stewart, but I ended up with quite a few broken eggs. LOL. Thanks for sharing!
Agh, these are incredible! I was just working on my Ukranian eggs last night. I wish I had time (and a giant ostrich egg) to work on something like this. Beautiful!
So lovely! Reminds me of the miniature exhibits at the Philadelphia Flower Show…but more clever!
Is it necessary to blow the eggs out first, or can you cut into an intact egg?
Nice work! Just one question, how did you smooth the opening of the egg?
These are so adorable! The colors are amazing and I love the little wood pedestals the eggs sit on. Amazing!
may I share my easter eggs with you? I really love how they turned out!
Ahh..so pretty!! happy easter to you, grace! xx meenal
I made one of these out of wool felt last year because I also have a fascination with these eggs.
The post is here:
So beautiful!
i can’t believe how tiny and perfect these are. this must have taken an INSANE amount of patience!
This is so beautiful! What a lovely embodiment of the rebirth of spring!! ^_^
Really something sweet! (But do you mean to say diorama – not panorama?) Either way – it’s precious!
unreal! these are so beautiful. will you be selling them in your shop before easter or was this just a one-time dealio?
These are amazing and beautiful!
One more important thing to note: egg dust is toxic and can damage the lungs so it is important to always wear a face mask or respirator when carving.
Another egg artist:
Amazing! The most gorgeous Easter decorations ever. Faberge on a budget. :)
Happy Easter, bunnies!
xxx
Love this project. Thinking I might give it a try. Thank you for posting.
That’s gorgeous and pretty, I love it ! And so poetic…
i just did an egg diy post, was so proud of it and then came across this mind blowing project and feel like… this idea is magic. we like it wild rocks.
Really pretty! I actually thought this was Small Stump when I saw the photos, they’re so similar, did they do this as a guest blog? If not you should really check out their florist blog, I think you’d love it!
brigitte
yes, small stump and studio choo are the same company- they write this column for d*s every other friday. you can see their archives from the past few years here:
grace :)
I tried natural egg dyes this year and it worked out well! Next year something like this may be in order. Cute post!
This is awesome! I did my own take of egg shell vase – visit my blog for pics –
I noticed that it’s really hard to make the edges so smoothly without a dremel. I like the leafy ribbon on the opening as well. Thanks for sharing the great tips:)
so freaking great.
You can find some lovely carved eggs to use at laneseggs.com. I have purchased eggs from her and they are great!