The Collector: Shanna Cejka’s hodgepodge, multicolored egg collection is ‘little sprinkles of love’

Shanna Cejka doesn’t really care which came first, the chicken or the egg. She’s all about the egg, and she’s collected more than 100 of them.

Her collection started with a question.

“When I met my mother-in-law, she asked, ‘What do you collect?’ ” Cejka said.

Apparently, most members of the family collected something. A friend had recently given her a cloisonné egg.

“So, I said eggs,” she said.

Thirty-four years later, ovoid objects made of metal, stone, wax and wood fill a glass-fronted cabinet in her home office.

Some are antique, like the World War I inert egg grenade she found on eBay. Likewise, a 1906 hinged tin that once held Bassett’s Egg Shampoo Cream.

“It’s one of my favorites,” Cejka said.

Much of her collection features handcrafted works of art, but nature’s handiwork is also included. From a large ostrich egg to a small speckled chickadee egg, most of them have stories.

Like one that came from an emu.

“When I worked at Telect, my manager raised emus,” Cejka said. “I asked if I could have one if it was a dud.”

Her favorite came from under a goose, but the goose didn’t lay it. Her mother painted a glass egg that belonged to Cejka’s Great-Grandmother Elliot.

“They put glass eggs under geese to cause them to start laying,” she said.

A grape-size corn snake egg fell into her lap, so to speak.

“I kept a corn snake – she had a clutch and I kept one.”

Another reptilian item is a reproduction of a fossilized Velociraptor egg.

“A real one would cost a fortune!”

Her costliest item was a gift from her mother-in-law. Polished into an ovoid shape, the Septarian nodule from Utah reveals an intricate calcite crystal formation within.

Cejka has eggs made from agate, obsidian and marble. A shimmering white one is made of naturally occurring asbestos.

Many pieces in her collection originated far from Spokane.

A blue and white beauty came from a thoughtful young man.

“My neighbor kid went to Hungary with his parents and found it,” Cejka said.

The skeptical shopkeeper watched the teen carry it around the store.

“When he went to pay for it, he told her it was for his neighbor, and she gave it to him.”

Another neighbor gave her an elegant ovate music box that plays “My Favorite Things.”

Russia is well represented. A richly hued, intricately patterned wooden item was also a gift. Its sheen and depth are created from layer upon layer of hand-painted lacquer. Then there’s one with a wintry Russian scene on a blue background. A thin trim of swirling gold filigree separates the snowy landscape from the solid black on the other side.

She discovered a Ukrainian wax egg at a local craft fair and another at Kizuri, downtown.

During a visit to Mount Vernon, Washington, she found a treasure: a moss green hand-blown glass egg created by renowned Finnish artist Oiva Toikka.

“He was most famous for birds, but he made eggs, too,” Cejka said. “I was attracted to the color. I love this matte green.”

Even better, she happened upon a second Toikka creation in Spokane.

“I found it at the Boulevard on North Monroe!”

While her collection is minus a famed Fabergé, she revels in the artistry of each piece. Whether formed by Mother Nature or crafted by human artisans, Cejka appreciates the untold hours that went into each one.

She closed the door to the cabinet that holds her treasures and smiled.

“I love that it’s so hodgepodge and multicolored,” she said. “It’s like little sprinkles of love.”