When I fist discovered drilled eggs I was completely fascinated! To drill little holes and patterns in those fragile shells seemed so cool and difficult. I wanted to try that for myself. What a callenge! At first I broke a lot of eggs. But gradually I got better and I finally got the hang of it. If you want to drill some eggs yourself, I have some tipps for you! 🙂 (If you are interested, here is a collection of some easter eggs I painted over the last couple of years.)
Tips and tricks for egg drilling:
1. Use a high quality rotary tool. I use the Proxxon Professional Rotary Tool IBS/E (available here*) and the corresponding Flexshaft (available here*). If you are just starting out you can use cheaper tools at first, but I wouldn’t reccommend it. More often then not they are not precise enough and the egg shell will break because the tool “vibrates” too much. That is very annoying and won’t happen as much with a high quality tool.
2. Use very small diamond point drill burrs (available here*) with your rotary tool. Use the smallest size for engraving and small holes and choose bigger ones for larger areas.
3. It’s easier to drill holes in eggs with thicker shells. I like to use chicken eggs, but it works even better with the eggs of geese, ducks or even ostriches. If you want to try your luck with chicken eggs, choose organic eggs because the shell will be much thicker. Also brown eggs have thicker shells than white eggs.
4. Try to hold the egg securely but not too tightly with one hand when you are drilling it. It’s important that you are flexible enough to absorb the vibration of the drill. Try to rest your ellbow on the table but not your hand.
5. Inside the hard egg shell is a thin membrane. If you have finished drilling the egg, you can see small patches of the membrane sticking out. That doesn’t look very nice, but there is an easy way to get rid of it. Fill a bowl with a mixture of bleach and water and submerge the egg in it. Leave it there for half an hour and rinse it afterwards with water. The membrane will dissolve and stamp marks on the shell will come off easily. Don’t leave your eggs too long (over night) in the bleach-mixture because it will also dissolve the hard shell and the egg becomes brittle.
If you want to drill some eggs yourself, try simple hole-patterns at first. You’ll soon get the hang of it and can move on to more complicated patterns. A chicken egg is much tougher than you might think. 🙂 Most of the accidents happen because one gets too impatient. Applying to much pressure with the drill bit can also be a source of error. Try to drill only small bits at a time.
Patience is key. Sometimes you destroy your egg at the last possible moment because you loose your concentration or want to finish it too fast. Also the egg becomes more fragile the more holes are in it. Don’t give up! You will master it! 🙂
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