Few shapes in nature excel that of an egg for perfection.   The egg on the left is carved from Polar jade, found at the same quarry site as the Emperor Stone but not directly broken off it.  The egg on the right is a fine granite which came from India.   The bears in the ‘Salmon River’ public artwork (see elsewhere on this site) are made from this same granite but in its unpolished state.

I love to carve eggs and I encourage all novice sculptors to carve eggs.  Of all sculptural shapes, they require the greatest discipline to get them right.  Note that the two above differ slightly in shape.  Is either one closer to ‘right’?  Perhaps not; there really is no ‘right’ for an egg, at least not absolutely—but there is certainly a ‘wrong’ .  In carving eggs, I think the closest we can get to ‘right’ is to not be ‘wrong’.

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