How eggstraordinary!

Current mood: Eggish
Current music: A single line of 'My Funny Valentine' is looping through Radio Brainwave

Hello! I hope you all had a happy Easter the other weekend, full of fluffy chicks and cute bunnies and a dead man cruelly nailed to two bits of wood (don't worry, He got to reincarnate in three days). My long weekend was tragic in that it was totally devoid of chocolate. I couldn't find so much as a packet of Cadbury's Mini-Eggs anywhere.

I DON'T BELIEVE IN THE EASTER BUNNY!

I did, however, discover some eggs of a more artistic nature. The art that was made famous by the fin-du-siècle Russian jeweller, Carl Fabergé (1846-1920), moves forward into the 21st century. Fabergé was renowned for the creation of exquisite egg-shaped Easter gifts (particularly for the Russian royal family), each containing an original surprise - a golden hen, a basketful of spring flowers, a carriage, a singing nightingale, or even a palace.

But when I went to see an exhibition by the visiting American artist, Gregory A Martin, I didn't see any of that. No enamel and jewels and fancy bits of gold wire.

This guy carves REAL eggs. Ostrich, emu, and rhea eggs, in fact. If you're concerned about cruelty to baby ostriches, don't worry - he only carves infertile eggs that don't hatch.

While not as fancy as Fabergé's creations, what Martin does is pretty cool. The carving which impressed me the most was called 'Holding the World Up', which is basically an ostrich egg carving of the planet Earth, with all of the continents floating precariously on a network of longitudinal and latitudinal lines. It must have been very hard to do.

The same could be said of 'Twist', an emu egg carved into a set of criss-crossed, waving, and spiralling lines. If you could set that egg spinning, you probably could self-hypnotise in 30 seconds.

The exhibition was divided by theme - some carvings were inspired by nature, and depicted tulips, roses, trees, wolves and koalas. Some were related to places - Paris, Hong Kong, China, and Australia. A small set were portraits of famous people, such as a smiling Princess Diana, a moody James Dean, Shakespeare on a scroll, and Salvador Dalí with his infamous handlebar moustache (which, according to Dalí, could detect messages from outer space. What a joker!). And some were just fantastic - there was a lovely carving featuring a fierce dragon with a long and winding body, and (lost somewhere in its coils) a rather small knight, apparently trying to find the dragon's head. Presumably to cut it off. Huh - doesn't he know that dragons are an endangered species?

The artist himself was on hand to do a demonstration, and took up the challenge of carving, on bits of broken eggshell, the names and faces of people in the audience. He particularly liked doing Chinese names (which he couldn't read, but could copy like pictures... After all, Chinese characters were originally little pictograms). By sheer luck (and a matter of sticking my hand up at the right time) I managed to get my portrait carved on a piece of emu eggshell. Though perhaps 'caricature' would be a more accurate description... Well, you be the judge. Is it a good likeness?


If you decide that you, too, want an egg carving with your face on it, check out Greg Martin's website. He does personalised eggs on request, though you'd better have a fair bit of money in the bank handy...

http://www.chameleonartist.com

In a totally different vein, I thought I'd mention some of the funny names I've come across in Hong Kong. 'Apple' is not uncommon as a girl's name, though I've only ever met one boy whose moniker was 'Unique' (hence the truth of the label). On the very day that I saw the eggs eggshibition (sorry, but I did warn you about the bad puns), I had lunch in a restaurant and was served first by a waitress called Gloomy, and then by a waiter called Sunny. How about that! Afterwards, as I did a little bit of shopping, I was helped out by a shop assistant named Happy. Hmm - do you happen to know anyone who goes by Stormy or Rainy or Cloudy? It really would complete the set... Anyway, feel free to post some Funny Names You Know to the comments box. Ciao, bambini!