A Blue Style Liberty Egg
This delicate and fragile egg has been painted completely by hand in a beautiful Art Nouveau style, known as Arts and Crafts Movement or “Style Liberty” in the United Kingdom. The egg has a background of vibrant aqua blue which is decorated with a mixture of stylised blue flowers and foliage in a William Morris style and then overlaid with tiny silver white flecks. The egg is then covered in a varnish to protect the fragile hand painted surface.
The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 6th of May “Blue for You – ME 2023” which is in honour of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day which happens to fall on May 12th. May the 12th was chosen as it coincided with the birth date of Florence Nightingale, the celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale became chronically ill in her mid-thirties after returning from the Crimean War; the M.E.-like illness often left her bedridden during the last 50 years of her life.
As the theme for “Smile on Saturday” this week was open to subject but required a lot of blue, I thought I would submit another of my ornamental eggs, all of which just happen to be blue! This egg, perched atop a small porcelain rest, has a small puncture at both the top and the bottom, indicating that it was “blown”, a tradition where one blows the white and yolk of the egg through the hole in the bottom by way of exhaling into the hole at the top. A time consuming method, egg blowing must be done gently so as not to break the fragile egg shell by applying too much pressure. It can take well over an hour to blow a single egg. The paper I have chosen for the background, which also just happens to be blue, is William Morris’ 1875 “Marigold” pattern which I thought suited this Style Liberty Easter egg as well as the blue theme. I hope you like my choice of the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.
A Blue Style Liberty Egg
This delicate and fragile egg has been painted completely by hand in a beautiful Art Nouveau style, known as Arts and Crafts Movement or “Style Liberty” in the United Kingdom. The egg has a background of vibrant aqua blue which is decorated with a mixture of stylised blue flowers and foliage in a William Morris style and then overlaid with tiny silver white flecks. The egg is then covered in a varnish to protect the fragile hand painted surface.
The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 6th of May “Blue for You – ME 2023” which is in honour of ME/CFS and Fibromyalgia International Awareness Day which happens to fall on May 12th. May the 12th was chosen as it coincided with the birth date of Florence Nightingale, the celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale became chronically ill in her mid-thirties after returning from the Crimean War; the M.E.-like illness often left her bedridden during the last 50 years of her life.
As the theme for “Smile on Saturday” this week was open to subject but required a lot of blue, I thought I would submit another of my ornamental eggs, all of which just happen to be blue! This egg, perched atop a small porcelain rest, has a small puncture at both the top and the bottom, indicating that it was “blown”, a tradition where one blows the white and yolk of the egg through the hole in the bottom by way of exhaling into the hole at the top. A time consuming method, egg blowing must be done gently so as not to break the fragile egg shell by applying too much pressure. It can take well over an hour to blow a single egg. The paper I have chosen for the background, which also just happens to be blue, is William Morris’ 1875 “Marigold” pattern which I thought suited this Style Liberty Easter egg as well as the blue theme. I hope you like my choice of the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.