Artist: Nicholas A. Poleschuk Jr.

Title: Lamp Shade
Egg Number: 2011-02

More Information

The carving is based on a photo I took of Lamp Shade, many years ago, while on a Boy Scout outing to Ironwood Springs Christian Ranch near Stewartville, MN. Lamp Shade was a pet emu that lived at the petting zoo on the Ranch. I chose the photo due to Lamp Shade’s attitude. The eyes are haunting. I gave my practice carving to Ironwood Springs after learning that Lamp Shade had passed away in April, 2011. My work comes out of a love for sculpting, a passion for detail and a tool discovered at a woodworking show that allows me to combine the two, a high speed engraver. The speed of the engraver allows me tremendous control and the burs help me produce the detail I crave in my eggshell sculptures. I do low relief sculpting on ostrich, emu and rhea eggshells along with nature and geometric designs carved into goose and chicken eggshells. Emu eggshell sculpting, in particular, thrills me. The dark green, almost black outer layer, the teal middle layer and white inner layer provide a color palette not available with other shells. I work at using the colored layers to their best advantage in my designs. The emu egg shell is only 0.04” (1 mm) thick so the entire design has to be sculpted within this thickness along with the restrictions of the thickness of each of the colored layers. This is what makes sculpting emu eggshells challenging and so much fun.

I am a member of:

  • International Egg Art Guild
  • Southeastern Minnesota Visual Artists (SEMVA)
  • Mantorville Art Guild
  • Rochester Woodcarvers
  • The I & E Network
Web Site: www.PoleschukStudios.com