"Polly Wanna' Play?" 
(1st Place in Decorated Category)

a message about the art from the artist -  Lee Michele Boyle

This was, by far, the most challenging and nerve-wracking egg I've ever cut (with the Endura) and assembled.  The comical interplay of Tweety and Sylvester, and the memories of my own patient cat who would sit for hours watching my brother's caged budgie, were the inspiration for this special egg.  The speckled emu shell reminded me of the strong cages housing the macaws and exotic parrots at our local plant nursery.

Doris Lockerbie taught our Fowl Eggers' group the mechanics of marking and cutting the triangles and the ovals from the single egg from which the birdcage was to be constructed.  I bleached the inside of one speckled-shell emu egg to remove the membrane before marking and cutting it so as to avoid exposing the outside of the shell to bleach.  Using Natalie's blue marker, I marked the egg into thirds, decided on the width of my "bars", and marked an oval inside each of the three sections of the shell, making sure that I left sufficient width between each set of ovals for the bar forming the birdcage's frame.  A second, smaller oval having the same bar width as the first oval was then marked inside each of the first three ovals.  A triangle having the same bar width as the ovals was then drawn freehand on the top and the bottom of the shell.  A small triangle with the same bar width was then drawn inside each of the larger triangles.  All lines were carefully scored over and over before any of the fourteen pieces were cut out.  The smaller triangles were cut out first, then the larger triangles, then the center ovals (which were the only three pieces not used in the design), then the smaller rings, and lastly the larger rings, ensuring that each piece as it was cut fell outwards onto a padded cushion.  After cutting, there was a frame of three interlocking rings.  Aqua ultra fine glitter was applied to the inside of each piece with gold adhesive size.  Once it was dry, diamond varathane was painted on to seal it.  The outer speckled shell was left its natural colour and the Krylon UV Protection spray was applied.  The inner and outer edge of each piece was lined with silver braid.  A wooden oval base was also painted the dark black-green to match the shell.  The two larger diamonds were overlapped and epoxied to form the six-legged stand, and rhinestone findings were glued to each tip to hide any difference in height.  Due to the weight of the hand-painted parrot figurine, I had to assemble a separate support that would extend up from the wooden base and through the opening of the overlapping triangles to support the small shell triangle on which the figurine was to be mounted.  I made the support from part of a six-point brass candlestick holder painted the dark black-green to match the shell and lined with silver braid.  To that candlestick holder, I epoxied several strong brass findings.  The brass and shell stands were securely epoxied onto the wooden base.  The frame was then epoxied on top of the shell/brass stand.  One tiny triangle was then epoxied on top of the inner brass stand (which was high enough to take the weight of the triangle's tips off the birdcage frame yet small enough to be hidden beneath that shell triangle) and the triangle's tips were epoxied to the inner sides of the frame.  The parrot was then epoxied on that reinforced shell triangle stand.  The larger rings were epoxied to the center of each of the three frame posts.  The smaller rings were epoxied so that they were centered between and overlapped the edges of the larger rings.  The other small triangle was epoxied on top of the frame, and findings were cut apart and assembled for the cage's top hanger.  Lastly, using a dremel and fimo, I reshaped and hand-painted a resin pussycat sitting patiently watching Polly the parrot.

Lee Michele Boyle
Lee's Legacy
1054 Northmount Drive, N.W., Calgary, Alberta T2L 0B9, Canada
Telephone Number: (403) 289-1722
E-Mail Address: lee.boyle@3web.net
http://www.geocities.com/m_chidester/encyclopedia/LBoyle.html