A Fragile Canvas Engraver Makes Sculptures Out Of Drained Eggshells
Most people think of eggs in terms of sunny side up or scrambled.
For Louie Delgado, they conjure images of fairy dragons tangled in gossamer, the delicate splendor of blooming roses, rivers snaking through South America and the fragile quality of life on Earth.
Delgado, an engraver on Spokane’s North Side, carves intricate pieces of art out of drained eggshells.
For the past five years, the 44-year-old man has turned ostrich, emu, rhea, swan, duck and dove eggs into sculptures that have sold for upward of $3,800.
His pieces - including a depiction of the globe that features major mountain ranges and rivers etched onto the continents - inspire awe, at both the craftsmanship entailed and beauty produced.
Delgado has created scenes on eggs that show dragons slithering along intricate webs, and others where butterflies float over patchwork motifs.
He once carved the Starship Enterprise for a fan of the Star Trek television series.
“I wish that I had kept that one,” he says.
Delgado doesn’t treat the eggshells before he begins his work. He simply sketches the scene on them with a pencil and then uses special engraving tools to cut in the scenes.
Sometimes, he cuts away entire sections of the shell - as much as 85 percent of the surface - to create a netlike pattern. Other times, he simply carves designs into the paper-thin surface.
“With the eggs, there are no two identical,” says his wife, Cindee Delgado.
Delgado says he became fascinated with egg sculpting after reading about artists of the Ming Dynasty who carved eggs for Chinese emperors.
He began trying it himself shortly after he and his wife opened their engraving business, Magical Intricacies, in 1990. He also engraves glass and other materials.
Delgado says he broke nine eggs, which he gets from breeders throughout the Northwest, for every one he finished in the beginning.
“It’s really easy to screw up. This is an art you can’t learn somewhere,” he says. “It takes a lot of patience. It takes a lot of time.”
Delgado says he has spent nearly 200 hours working on a piece called “Overland Express,” an ostrich egg that will feature a stagecoach pulled by six horses.
He took a few minutes one day recently to work on the sculpture, which he says he may present to Ted Turner and Jane Fonda, who own a ranch in Montana.
“I’m a big fan of the Turners,” he says.
His diamond-headed cutting tool produced a high-pitched whine as he lightly brushed it along the surface of the egg, shaping the outline of one of the stagecoach’s windows.
The disintegrating shell gave off a smell reminiscent of a tooth being drilled at the dentist’s office.
Delgado didn’t seem to mind the annoying sound or smell, focusing intently on his work as rock-n-roll music emanated from a nearby radio.
Collectors all over the world have purchased his eggs.
Delgado once worked for nearly 36 hours straight sculpting an egg for a Japanese sake magnate visiting Spokane.
He also created a sculpture for a German man who presented it to his wife on their 40th wedding anniversary.
To Delgado, the eggs are more than just a way to make money. They are symbols of something greater.
His sculptures are fragile and beautiful and need to be treated with care, he says.
“That’s the same with the Earth, with nature,” Delgado says. “It’s beautiful, but you have to take care of it. That’s a statement we’re making, really.”
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos