The Golden Egg

I figured that if a goose could lay a golden egg, then the eggshell had the right to try to escape the gold melting pot. Hopefully, I have captured half the egg shell at rest after a run, or poised to take off again.

This bowl morphed out of an exercise suggested by David Ellsworth at the West Coast Round-up a year ago. He tried to get us to explore shapes, to push the limit on the shapes we were making. I had just started making bowls designed like the small end of an egg. At first I though I could not do much with it, because the egg is one of nature's perfect shapes. Then I played with it and cut the rim off at a 20 degree angle. This created an off-balance ellipse which I then had to support with a foot, so it would stay upright. I played with various supports, then woke up in the middle of the night thinking: "why not an actual foot?" That led to the goose feet, which were originally just supposed to support the side of the bowl. That made the eggshell look like it was dragging its butt -- so the feet got put under so it was balanced. Next came the 23 carat gold interior and, voila! Don't ask me to explain how my brain works.

The piece is about 7 inches wide and 5 inches tall.