Don’t waste those eggshells. Today, we are going to show you how to create beautiful on-of-a-kind eggshell art based on the Japanese fine art of Kintsugi.
WHAT YOU NEED
- Eggshells (obviously!)
- Alcohol inks
- Alcohol
- Eye dropper or pipette
- Gold paint
- Super small paint brush
- Straw
- Hot glue gun
- Paper towels
SUPER FUN EXTRAS
- Alcohol ink markers
- Fillable blending pens
- Gold leaf sheets and glue
- Yupo plastic paper (for practice!)
- Shadowbox frame
WHAT IS THE JAPANESE ART OF KINTSUGI?
As soon as I read about the art of Kintsugi, I was hooked. In a world with so much waste, fast fashion, disposable furniture, hell, disposable PEOPLE, this spoke to my soul. All of the Instagram videos touting waist trainers, poutier lips, whiter teeth, less cellulite, removal of dark skin spots, unwanted hair, better cheekbones…all of it would disappear if we took this concept and applied it to our own lives. I saw how healing it could be and knew I needed to marinate in this concept for a while.
Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery using gold. Rather than throw out a broken pot or vase, the fragments are put back together and made stronger, more beautiful and more valuable. The imperfections are not hidden, but highlighted as things of beauty. Yes, beauty can be found in the imperfections. These cracks of gold make each piece unique, one of a kind, just like each of us. There is beauty in reconstructing the broken pieces.
WHAT ARE ALCOHOL INKS?
This was my first-time using alcohol inks and I fell in love with them. These alcohol inks are addictive! A few friends came over to try them out with me and we spent somewhere in the vicinity of 6 hours in a therapeutic, meditative state just playing with these suckers. All of us started by practicing on Yupo paper, a plastic paper that is non-absorbent and allows the alcohol inks to sit on top of the paper and be manipulated with drops of alcohol and moving air.
The layering and translucent effects from alcohol ink are mesmerizing. They are actually similar to watercolor in many ways, but instead of using water to manipulate, smooth and blend, you use alcohol. These inks can be used on any non-porous surface (think glass!) and will be waterproof once set. They are set once the alcohol evaporates leaving the highly pigmented ink behind.
ADDING ALCOHOL INK TO EGGSHELLS
Honestly, we could have done this all day on its own. But alas, we had some beautiful eggshells waiting for us. We quickly found that the alcohol inks don’t work quite the same on the eggshells. Still SUPER fun! Eggshells are porous. Those suckers slurped up the ink quickly, and we had to move super-fast to manipulate it. That is unless we added drops of alcohol first and then dropped the ink on top. Both approaches created interesting effects.
The best way to move around the ink is with air. In our case we blew through straws into the eggs filled with drops of ink and/or alcohol. We tested blowing hard, soft, with extra drops of alcohol, ink only, etc. The good news is, if you don’t love the initial result, add alcohol and see what it does. Or add another drop of ink to create a layered effect. The world is your artistic egg oyster!
ADDING THE KINTSUGI EFFECT
Once you have dyed your alcohol ink eggs, it’s time to add the Kintsugi effect. I say “effect” because you are not actually going to Humpty Dumpty eggs back together with 24 karat gold for this art project. This project is meant to be a symbolic representation, an homage if you will, to the Kintsugi art form.
We tried two different options for adding gold to our egg art. The first (and my favorite) was simple gold paint. You absolutely need the tiniest paintbrush in your arsenal to achieve this delicate effect. I thoroughly enjoyed this part. I was able to let my mind drift and just follow the natural, organic lines created by both the eggs and the alcohol inks. The second gold option we tried was gold leaf paper. You may have seen us use this before when we decorated eggs for Easter. It is so pretty! However, for the sake of making delicate Kintsugi lines, it is much harder to control. If you choose to use this process, you need to be a little more open-minded about your final result.
OPTIONAL TECHNIQUES
I also purchased a set of alcohol ink markers and blending pens filled with alcohol. The alcohol ink markers allow you to make designs and markings that are much more controlled, but they can still be manipulated with alcohol. I used these to add patterns to some of my eggs for extra variation. They are fun, but I barely broke the surface of what they can do. Super excited for future experiments!
ASSEMBLING YOUR ARTWORK
It’s finally time to bring it all together to create your finished piece of eggshell art. Bring on the hot glue! I purchased shadow box frames at our local Ikea and spray painted the backings. For some pieces, we used the mats provided to create an interesting visual of the shells escaping the confined form. For others we decided to forgo the mats for a simple background. No matter what you decide it will be beautiful and unique! Breaking some of the eggshells into smaller pieces for more visual variety really worked for me, but don’t let anyone tell you what to do. Art is in the eye of the beholder, and if you love it, it is a masterpiece – just like you.
I would love to have more information on this beautiful art!
I have egg shells just need a starting point!
Thank you
Hi Karen! I’m just now seeing your comment. Pease forgive my tardy reply. Did you give it a try? If not getting started is VERY easy! Rinse out your eggshells and let them dry. Buy a small group of alcohol inks, grab a straw and get to playing! I also recommend some yupo paper to play with the alcohol inks. It’s so fun and allows you to get the feel for them. Liz
Elisa Sheehan has done this year’s ago.
All of us eggshell artists (or wanna bees..like me) shouldn’t be trying to call their egg shell art “Kintsugi’ eggshell….in my most humble opinion.
Obviously this is really in the spirit of kintsugi . This embraces the meaning, and hopefully gives people a sense of hope and healing in an approachable way without the expense of the gold. Yes, Elisa is an amazing artist!
Thank you so very much, Jill! I so appreciate you mentioning me here since this is clearly inspired by my work. Kintsugi itself is a beautiful concept to share. My application of it to eggshells was something born out of my studio practice many, many years ago and one that I’ve honed ever since.
Elisa – I’m shocked that you would make such a conceited, condescending, RUDE comment on someone’s blog/article. You don’t own eggshell art. You are not the originator of the idea! People have been using eggshells in art for decades, if not centuries and millenia! You weren’t the first artist to conceptualize painting and installing eggshells on a canvas to produce a finished piece of art. Thousands of artists, crafters, and everyday average Janes and Joes have been using eggshells in their art and craftwork for a looong time – with a lot of it publicized online via articles, blogs, social media, etc. My great-grandmother constructed several pieces of “eggshell art” and when I was just a little girl over 40 years ago!) she would do arts & crafts with me, my siblings, and cousins, eggshells were one of our favorite items to work with! Additionally, you have no idea that this author or her article were even remotely familiar with your work being that eggshell art is EVERYWHERE! LOL! Perhaps she ran across a social media post that an average Jane posted displaying her eggshell art and she was inspired from that! Or maybe she got the idea from reading about Kintsugi and eggshells came to mind. You’re ego is undeservedly overinflated. Your bitchy assumptions are making you look like a fool! With that said, I’m SO GLAD you exposed your character and rude, arrogant attitude because I AM familiar with you and your work and WAS considering purchasing a couple of pieces for my home AND for my offices, BUT I don’t support @ssholes. I would’ve been horrified if I already purchased the pieces from you and came across this comment afterward. So, thanks for saving me!
How to prepare the shells before adding paint and can we use acrylic paint??
Hi Feria! We are in the world of art, so breaking the rules and making your own is part of the process. All of the shells we used were well rinsed out. In most cases, I removed most of the membrane, however seeing how it reacts with the alcohol ink is also very interesting! I’m sure you could use watered down acrylics, but you won’t get the same reactions as you do with alcohol ink, which is very unique, soaks into the egg shells and dries almost spontaneously. If you try acrylics I would love to see the results though! Liz
How do you get the egg shells ready? Do you boil the eggs? Looks like you got them perfectly broken in half.
Hi Elizabeth! My business partner Jen is in trouble…for some reason she is the only one getting the comment notifications and didn’t forward to me…dammit Jen!!! Jk. 😉 My eggshells are from a variety of uses. I keep them when I make a morning omelet or bake a cake or batch of cookies. They are by no means perfectly broken in half! I personally kind of like the randomness and organic nature of that. I even keep the little pieces that fall off. After I crack the eggshells, I give them a good rinse and rub the inside well with my fingers…don’t want them to get smelly as they sit and dry. I usually try to pull off the membrane, but sometimes I leave some of it on. The membrane interacts differently with the alcohol inks and it’s fun to experiment and see what you like better. It’s really an art for everyone…kids and adults alike! There’s not a right or wrong/yes or no. Just dive in and play!
Hi,
Thinking of doing this with my students. Can we use hard boiled egg shells? is there a difference in structure after eggs have been hard-boiled? Or, best to use raw egg shells?
I think that the egg shells themselves would be fine, BUT you are my personal magical unicorn if you can remove hard boiled eggshells in large enough pieces to use! Peeling egg shells off hard boiled eggs ends in about 200 tiny little pieces for me. 🙂 Let us know!