Francine Clary
"I'm a French and English teacher in the suburb of Paris. My fondness for eggs began as a child upon the discovery of a freshly laid egg in my grandmother's garden. A wondrous event for a little girl. The discovery of an everyday miracle! This would later inspire and mold my life. I treasure the tender memories of days spent and discoveries found in Grandmother's garden.
My enchantment with egging began with a recipe for poached quail eggs. I saved the shells and later modeled and painted small animal subjects (bird in a nest, squirrel, mice, swans, etc) which I glued inside the shells.
This small beginning was further advanced by my introduction to Francoise Vignal-Caillet, Directress of the French Egg Museum. My dear uncle was very ill when he introduced us and died shortly thereafter, a sad event for me, but he left me with a dear and precious friend in Francoise. Through her encouragement and kindness I was able to venture into a more risky and serious egg art: transforming duck, hen, partridge, pheasant and even blackbird eggs into jewel boxes.
Today I am experiencing the exciting adventure of carving and sculpting on the rare and beautiful emu and rhea shells. I'm most grateful to the internet and meeting of Karen Myers and De Shae Villoch whose advice and friendships are most precious to me. They have encouraged and helped me to further develop my artistic expressions.
My attraction to egg crafting is the challenge of fragility: opening and creating even more delicate this fragile material, using the splits of the shell to make it blossom as the accidents in our lives can be transformed into blessings and harmony. Behind our shieldings we are more fragile than egg shells.
