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April 2025 Challenge: Turn an Egg!

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Michael Anderson

Michael Anderson

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Hi everyone!

This month's challenge is somewhat seasonal. Eggs are the name of the game, so let's turn one. Or ten. This challenge is open to interpretation, so feel free to make a single egg, a set of eggs, and/or get as funky and creative as you desire. For a bit of inspiration, here are some some eggs laid by Betty Scarpino, Bill Ooms, Lowell Converse, and yours truly.

Egg_BS.jpg
Egg_BO.jpg
Egg_LC.jpg
Photo3_CW_Anderson.jpg

Good luck with the challenge. The most important thing is to have fun. Eggs are good practice pieces, and a surprisingly large number of people have not turned one. If this is you, please join the challenge this month. Here are the rules, as determined by AAW Forum legal counsel Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe:
  • Entries must be posted in this thread by ~11:59 pm Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on April 26, 2025.
  • Maximum of two photos of your egg (one is also fine). Please leave a bit of margin around your egg, so I can fit your name in the voting thread photo.
  • As always, this is a turning contest, not a "moldy oldie" photo contest, so in fairness to everybody, make sure your work is something you have made since this challenge was issued on April 7, 2025.
  • You may not post any photos of your entry in this month’s challenge in any other thread or in the gallery until the voting has ended and a winner has been declared.
  • Voting will take place from April 27, 2025, through 11:59 pm UTC on April 30, 2025.
  • Solicitation of votes will result in disqualification.
  • The winner might have to pass a lie detector test before collecting the grand prize of a dogleg high-carbon continental gouge. Good luck, have fun, make shavings, and let the chips fall where they may!!
 
What an excellent challenge! When I decided to turn some eggs a few years ago, to get the shape I wanted I used a tiny point-source light 10’ away to cast a shadow of a “typical” egg onto a note card, then traced and measured the shadow to make a template. So far I’ve turned chicken-sized wooden eggs as well as guinea, turkey, and peacock. Just a few days ago someone gave me a goose egg to incubate - it’s way bigger than even peacock! - made me think it might be fun to turn a series someday from robin to goose size.

THIS PICTURE IS NOT A CHALLENGE ENTRY, just an old moldy idea for a turning aid. I hold a square blank in a chuck to turn and sand most of the egg, then part it off and hold it in my “egg chuck” to quickly clean up the end. Made the chuck from soft and somewhat flexible cedar with a hard dogwood 1.25x8 threaded insert glued in the end. Not really needed but something like this could speed things up if going bonkers and turning enough, say, to fill an egg carton!

eggs_com_A.jpg

I won’t be able to turn eggs this month, so if anyone nearby wants to borrow the chuck just ask. Chicken egg size…

JKJ
 
Haven’t participated in monthly challenge yet, so figured I’d give this one a shot. Decided to add some additional parameters to the challenge to really push myself: 1) Can only use a skew and 2) Work from memory (no references).

This 2”ø x 2.5”h ebonized cherry egg was the result. The skew left a nice surface, though I had to do a little sanding with 400 to smooth out the transitions. Ebonized with some black tea and iron acetate before applying several light coats of Danish oil. Once the DO cured, I buffed with brown Tripoli and cleaned it up with an empty flannel wheel.

DSC00761.jpeg
 
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Once again tragedy has struck for me!
I spent an hour searching for just the right piece of walnut.(brown eggs are local eggs etc.)
Got it on the lathe and turned and hollowed such a perfect piece that I even impressed myself!
I hurriedly grabbed it and ran upstairs to show my wife the perfect creation I made.
Wouldn't you know half way across the kitchen I dropped it!!!


Here is the result!
IMG_1135.jpg
Lol on the story!
 
Phil Hamel said:
Once again tragedy has struck for me!
I spent an hour searching for just the right piece of walnut.(brown eggs are local eggs etc.)
Got it on the lathe and turned and hollowed such a perfect piece that I even impressed myself!
I hurriedly grabbed it and ran upstairs to show my wife the perfect creation I made.
Wouldn't you know half way across the kitchen I dropped it!!!


Here is the result!
View attachment 74729
Lol on the story!
Click to expand...
Very clever, Phil!
 
Phil Hamel said:
Once again tragedy has struck for me!
I spent an hour searching for just the right piece of walnut.(brown eggs are local eggs etc.)
Got it on the lathe and turned and hollowed such a perfect piece that I even impressed myself!
I hurriedly grabbed it and ran upstairs to show my wife the perfect creation I made.
Wouldn't you know half way across the kitchen I dropped it!!!


Here is the result!
View attachment 74729
Lol on the story!
Click to expand...
I guess the yolk’s on us!
 
Phil Hamel said:
I hurriedly grabbed it and ran upstairs to show my wife the perfect creation I made.
Wouldn't you know half way across the kitchen I dropped it!!!
Click to expand...

Yeah, right. Clever idea. Guess it would be hard to turn a chick. (I have over 100 eggs in the incubator now. On a certain schedule they must be "candled" with a bright light to check for development - It's amazing when I can see the embryo moving inside!)
 
From Google translate:
"Happy Easter everyone! Here is my entry for the challenge. An oak burl egg, 1.80 m tall, with a zinc insert."

1.8m in height is almost 6 ft, still huge.
 
John Redding said:
When I saw the theme, Breakfast For One immediately came to mind for my first challenge entry since becoming a member. Plate is 12” black walnut, English Muffin is siberian elm, and the eggs are aspen with yellowheart yolks, all finished with Odie’s Oil. Liberal use of a torch was also involved.

View attachment 74842
Click to expand...
Props for creativity! I love the interpretation.
 
Phil Hamel said:
Once again tragedy has struck for me!
I spent an hour searching for just the right piece of walnut.(brown eggs are local eggs etc.)
Got it on the lathe and turned and hollowed such a perfect piece that I even impressed myself!
I hurriedly grabbed it and ran upstairs to show my wife the perfect creation I made.
Wouldn't you know half way across the kitchen I dropped it!!!


Here is the result!
View attachment 74729
Lol on the story!
Click to expand...

Oh, the humanity! It cracked me up, no yolking. :rolleyes:
 
Here is my entry -- I didn't intend to turn an egg -- I was making small bud vases from several pieces of wood that I think is Norfolk Island Pine. The deep bug tunnels on this particular piece crushed any idea of turning a vase, so I improvised and made a tiny, lidded trinket box. From what was left over, I decided to practice with my skew technique & make a sphere - but somehow ended up with this egg ...
Egg Challenge.jpg
 
The smaller egg is about 2.5" diameter X 2.75", the wood is walnut with birch for the celtic cross. The larger egg is about 2.8" diameter X 3.5" and the wood is walnut & maple with the inserts cut from the same blank. They are hollowed and reassembled with a 16 TPI thread. The female thread is cut directly into one end then the male thread is cut into a separate insert and the male thread is trimmed to achieve a match of the details. The visible portion of the insert is trimmed to the thickness of the saw kerf than a tenon like end is fitted to a recess in the other end of the egg and glued in place with the details properly aligned.
IMG_1389.jpgIMG_1390.jpg
 
This is my first attempt at an egg with a star with 12 branches (90mm x 118mm) and one piece of madrone burl. I noticed this challenge in mid-April. Strangely enough, I had been thinking about this type of project before. I was designing the 3 jigs to do it, and started to build them at a low speed. Then, I had to accelerate the process to meet the deadline, but not fast enough. I wanted more openings that I traced.
This turned out to be a real challenge for me, including the speed that is never appropriate for this type of project.
 

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Isaac Litster said:
Mountain ash, AKA Rowan.
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Isaac, thank you for educating me! We are in Scotland right now on an eight day hike. I’ve been on and off hearing about the Rowan tree, and wondered about it. (Should have just looked it up!). You solved a mystery.

By the way, my favorite podcast is Scotland Outdoors, by BBC. Lots of tree related topics and a few weeks ago a feature about a Scottish turner/sculptor.

Corrected to say: I’m not actually sure he’s a turner, though many of Duke Christie’s works certainly look like they may have begun on the lathe. Worth looking up in any case.
 
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