FTWClutch:23/Eggs
FTW Clutch 23/Eggs
It's A Forest Out There Egg
A muddy blur of unpolished oak and paler, rough-hewn birch shades this small egg's surface. Feathering along its sides, the coloring darkens and reddens as it curves down and out of sight into the sands, though it never achieves more than a ruddy maple. Leaf-green traceries alight as briefly as a sunbeam across the very tip of the egg and drape down one side, petering out into glimmers of ash and faint, nearly coppery bronze.
Inspiration: The rich variety of trees in a forest, but especially the venerable oak.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Balkaiv with edits by T'rev and Cirse
Eternal Sentinel Egg
The rich hue of loam, dark as though freshly damp from a recent fall of rain, shelters the entire base of this smooth egg and gives it a rooted quality, as if it had grown straight out of the ground itself. Striations of grayed umber peek out here and there on one side, their long fingers stretching deep below the surface, lost to sight in the pocket of sand within which the egg sits. Even as they reach downward, a vast column of stately, furrowed bark rises up from the semblance of earth, seeming solid and immovable against the stark contrast of a spring blue sky. Tapering away into that sky, the top of the egg is dappled with a cool green canopy that's speckled with pale gold, draping downward here and there like a protective umbrella of warm, leafy sunshine.
Inspiration: The massive horse chestnut tree that dominated the school playground of my childhood. Used as 'homebase' for many a game of tag or just to sit under for shade on a hot day, the tree was the heart and soul of the playground.
Credits: Inspiration and description by T'rev with edits by Cirse
Sweet Syrup Egg
Sticky-sweet amber pours smoothly along the surface of this nearly spherical egg, masking any irregularities beneath its captivating gleam. Pale enough to have caught the sunlight at first, the warm color deepens as though layering over itself in slow rivulets, eventually pooling into darkness at its barely-larger base. There, it also acquires a dusting of minute tan speckles, as though when it had been lowered wetly onto the hatching sands, their grains had stayed and clung. As a whole the egg may be sweetly colored, innocuous even, but a few darker specks amidst the faux sand might well be vtols instead: easier to catch one's prey with syrup than with vinegar, after all.
Inspiration: The sweet treat of maple syrup, which is boiled from tree sap and amber, which forms from tree resin and cures over time, sometimes trapping unexpected things in its depths.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Balkaiv with edits by T'rev and Cirse
Rhus Bud Egg
Deep reds and bright pinks mingle upon this soft-pointed egg, its colors so invitingly warm and bright as to stand out against almost any backdrop, much less the dun sands. The deepest is a dark carmine that sweeps across the shell, pooling just to one side of its conical tip. Wispy streaks of lighter shades reach for that pool, never quite succeeding but never quitting either. Rose and fuchsia and even a touch of white, they're soft and downy enough to make the egg seem like just a bit of fluff... but it only looks that way.
Inspiration: The Sumac is a small flowering tree. Its bright red flowers form in a conical shaped cluster which was the inspiration for this egg. http://fiorella.wikidot.com/eggs09
Credits: Inspiration and description by fiorella with edits by Cirse
Silvered Motion Egg
Most often buried in lopsided fashion deep in a mound of sand, one side of this medium-sized egg stays nearly invisible, though the sweep of dun-hued grains peters out from right to left and lends a sense of motion-in-stillness to the clear, grass-patterned viridian of the shell's surface. Following the same direction as the cradling curve of sand, long veins of russet bear the twist and turn of narrow leaves, a deep shade of fern alternating with silvery celadon, that seem to glimmer faintly as the light shifts. Curling, lyrical shapes can be found down near the egg's base with a little digging, green leaf-ends turning to and fro as though dancing with the wind.
Inspiration: The large willow tree that tossed its head near an office park I walked through daily on my way to and from work. I would sit there sometimes with my son in his stroller to take a little break and the sighing of the wind through the branches and the way they hung low above us, was relaxing and lent a feeling of safety and calm.
Credits: Inspiration and description by T'rev with edits by Cirse
Ashes to Ashes Egg
Two-faced, this egg is a sweep of quietly granular gray, pale as Fort's own granite, lacking any outcropping of other hue for an eye to rest upon. On the other... that semblance of stone is riven by darker, jagged shadows into the illusion of depth, of the endlessly gaping mouth of a volcano's fractured peak, while below lies an ashen plain of desolation. Its blurry streaks can only hint at the powder-covered silhouettes of tumbled logs, lying askew across one another, their tangled roots bared to the sky like so much petrified lace. So endless are the eternal grays that they make the only disparity seem that much more lush: a small sliver of green just before that old devastation meets granite again, a shade of what might once, long ago, have been.
Inspiration: The trees that fell in the wake of the pyroclastic blast at Mount St. Helen's in 1980.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Ananta with edits by T'rev and Cirse
Climb the Sky Egg
Pale hues of golden peach encircle the base of this small round egg, the color slowly fading away into watery shades of silvery blue, like the very first kiss of color in a clear morning sky. Across that canvas of near-invisible hue are painted wavering strokes of black, the bold lines nearer the base stretching from a single point to almost encircle the near-spherical shell. As they reach for the zenith, the shadowy streaks grow steadily smaller, thinner, and harder to see, but each has its place, and never do they tangle.
Inspiration: The childhood 'climbing tree'. Often large with strong, and low branches that can be easily reached. http://fiorella.wikidot.com/eggs09
Credits: Inspiration and description by Fiorella with edits by Cirse
Mysterious Scribblings Egg
A warm, fawn-brown hue shades the surface of this egg, mottled here and there by darker patches of a grayer brown, as though they were the only remnants of an exterior shell otherwise pulled away. Scattered randomly across the warmer browns, tiny zigzags and swirls are further marked upon the shell like the scribblings of a child still only pretending knowledge of writing - or, perhaps, a language ancient and long lost. Towards the gentle upper curve, a darker swirl circles again and again, like a representation of the sun or some secret symbol.
Inspiration: Eucalyptus Haemastoma, or 'Scribbly Gum' is an tree native to the Sydney region of Australia. The Scribbly Gum is notable for the 'scribbles' visible in the bark, which are made by Scribbly Gum Moth larvae, which tunnel through the bark as they grow. A picture can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribbly_Gum
Credits: Inspiration and description by K'del with edits by T'rev and Cirse.
Darn(ing) Egg
It might have been carved from heartwood, so darkly and densely grained is the large egg, largest of all the clutch: a deep brown-gold incised with rows of fine parallel lines, here closer together, there further, until at one side they become an irregular oval surrounding another and then another yet again. Solid and unassuming, it bears the uneven polish of use, as well as the minute, erratic scratches that scar each end with the old memory of iron.
Inspiration: A darning egg is used in fixing snags or rents in fabric and is traditionally made of wood. As the saying goes, "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!"
Credits: Inspiration and description by Cirse.
Hole in the Sleeping Forest Egg
Long, thin black spindles reach up along the white expanse of this egg, spiky yet blooming like skeletal petals in a barren winter. Up, around, over, they would cover the entire gleaming surface if they could. In stark contrast, a wide circular spot breaks through the creeping of fingers, ringed by fallen lines that extend in uniform desolation all around. In this spot devoid of cold winter, splotches of gray and brown give an impression of long-ago blasts rendering the earth barren and shattered, cupped within the chilly embrace of fallen trees. The survivors stand, straight and tall, stretching upwards to find the light that surely must be found at the egg's apex.
Inspiration: The Tunguska Event happened in 1908 when a meteor or comet crashed into Siberia. The pictures shown of the occurrence always have this great treeline that displays standing trees, fallen trees, and everything between there.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Winston with edits by T'rev and Cirse.
First Temptation Egg
If this egg is somehow alluring, perhaps that's because it's so perfectly symmetrical in shape, or perhaps it's due to the elusive pattern it bears upon its shell. Though predominantly swirled with dark brown and light green like several of its clutchmates, here there's something further: three large red dots that look much like apples, though positioned so a viewer can see only one at a time. Likewise sometimes on display, sometimes concealed if that part of the egg is buried in sand, is a curl of bright lime around the egg's larger end that resembles a tunnelsnake, down to the dusky flick of tongue.
Inspiration: Adam and Eve resided in the Garden of Eden until Eve was tempted to take a bite of forbidden fruit from a tree.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Winston with edits by T'rev and Cirse.
Rooted Egg
The small egg might as well be a nest of tunnelsnakes captured in glass, the way its wormy stripes writhe thicker and thinner about each other, except these are pale as creatures that have never seen light and are just as eyeless. A darker, loamy brown separates them, and perhaps protects them, for they also appear to have no proper hide; several fine broken-off lines appear to emerge from the surface of each, is all, like the last white hairs combed across a man's balding pate.
Inspiration: Focusing closely on just one part of a tree led to remembering the look of a root ball when a plant has just been removed from its container, and from there... came hair. Credits: Inspiration and description by Cirse.
Reflection Egg
Silvery grays and blues blur over the shell, less progressing than digressing into cloud-soft possibilities that never quite resolve: one curve hints at shadows but can't stay neutral enough, while another might become a spiral or the outline of a shoulder if only it could commit. Only just to one side, and often covered by sand, is the seed of something else: a scarlet impression like a web-fingered hand, a leaf fallen and floating within the cool, watery mist.
Inspiration: Focusing on just one part of a tree, here it's a single Japanese maple leaf floating through an otherwise silvery autumn.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Cirse.
Up in Flame Egg
From a distance, a woven network of orange and red criss-crosses the surface of this squat little egg. The weave crowns the entire upper portion of the shell, gradually fading out into its distant cradle of sand. Deep brown lines branch up into the dense, fiery tangle, thick to thin and splitting repeatedly until they disappear beneath the thick corona over a backdrop of blue boldly playing against tongues of leafy flame. A mesh of hundreds of thousands of overlapping marquise shapes, orange to crimson, bleed into rust, with hints of slender dark twigs peeking in the gaps, topped by the bright licks of flame. There's a sense of constant reaching in every line, reaching for the top, for the sky above.
Inspiration: The awesome aspen tree in my back yard during the fall.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Phara with edits from T'rev and Cirse.
Fire-touched Silver Egg
Silver hoarfrost drifts over the shell of this smallish egg like a downy blanket. Indiscriminately flecked within it are speckles of muted olive green, seeming to cast faint gray shadows where there are none and lending illusory depth to something that is surely solid. On closer inspection, both silver and green cluster over the shell in short blunt spears, like lances dulled and domesticated into tameness.
Inspiration: Based on the Silvertree, _Leucadendron argentum_, native to South Africa. Its seeds only germinate after a forest fire. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucadendron_argenteum
Credits: Inspiration and description by Balkaiv with edits by T'rev and Cirse.
Walking Trees Egg
What an odd, old-looking egg this is, all somber dark green and brown, but faded in places like drawings in the most ancient Records. Larger than many of its counterparts, it might also seem more mobile, at least if the convoluted stretches of brown about its base can be believed. They resemble not only roots but feet, ready to cart the whole thing off to wherever it's needed. Leafy greens cover the rest of the egg, but right on top, streaks of brown return to form the face of a scowling old man: one that's quite content to remain unmoved and unmoving until the right time comes.
Inspiration: Ents are ancient tree creatures capable of movement and fighting in defense of the forests. While there's mention of such creatures in several stories the most known ones are to be found in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Credits: Inspiration and description by Winston with edits by T'rev and Cirse.
Faded Trackmarks Egg
Average in size and average in shape, this egg is creamy-pale in hue, altogether uninteresting save for the detailed markings that seem to march in unison across the shallow curve of the shell. The first set, the most prominent, seem much like a solid band: a swathe of slightly darker cream that runs from top to bottom, then around and up again, made up of tiny shapes like trackmarks. The other set is more rope-like in design, an intricate weave of fine brown lines, running parallel to the larger band until even they disappear at last.
Inspiration: Right in the middle of the elementary school I attended for a few years, there was a tree. And while there were many trees in this school (it was built on a farm, with acres of land to go with it), this one was special: it was the tire-swing tree. So this egg is inspired by that tree, and by tire-swings in general.
Credits: Inspiration and description by K'del with edits by T'rev and Cirse.
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