Easter Eggs

Simple. Complex. Beautiful. (Thx KR)

From Gourmet...

With careful eye and steady hand, Franc Grom carves delicate eggshells into exquisite miniature sculptures. He works from a studio in his native village of Stara Vrhnika, near the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana, putting a high-tech twist on the national tradition of embellishing eggs at Eastertime. 

In Slovenia, pirhi, meaning Easter eggs, are intricate works of art. Slovene artisans typically paint their eggs in elaborate detail, or—using what is known as the drsanka technique—lightly scratch delicate designs into the surfaces of colored eggs. “Making Easter eggs is a Slovene tradition, but carving them is an exception; it was my invention,” Grom explains.  

Depending on the difficulty of the design, it may take him one to two weeks to carve a complete image on an eggshell. A typical Franc Grom egg will contain 2,000 to 3,000 holes, though the artist recalls an egg he worked on for nearly three months in 2010, fashioning approximately 24,000 holes. 

For a video about Mr. Grom's artistry, go here.