Article - Mrs. West and her wonderful rooster

I have a few old eggshell mosaic articles that I will be posting from time to time. First up is the Sunday, December 16, 1962 Eugene Register-Guard, featuring a veritable one-woman craft army, Mrs. Lewis West, who could apparently make a mosaic from almost anything. That rooster she is proudly displaying is a classic! I would love to see it in color.

She started using eggshells because they reminded her of polished rocks she had found on the beach.

“As I walked along and picked up the polished rocks I wished I had a barrel of them. Their colors are so soft and subtle. Later as I was cooking eggs, I was struck by the similarity in the texture of the shell to the sand worn rocks. And I thought ‘why can’t I color them and use them in mosaics’.”

“I tried everything – food color, egg dye, fingernail polish, water colors. Finally, I tried clothing dye. It produced the even color I wanted. And it’s inexpensive. One package colors boxes of egg shells. The dyes are easy to mix or to combine for many hues.”

But making mosaics with egg shells is not for the impatient, she warned: “It’s a tedious job. I like to do it in the evening when I’m watching television.”

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