Difference between revisions of "Clutch:137"

Candidates: Breirande, Catling, Daemon and Ninwayzan

Dragon Writers: A'sran, D'vro, Dahlia, N'rov and Olivya

Dragon Editor: Suireh

NPC Emits: Dahlia and Suireh

Dragon Puppeteers: A'sran, Dahlia, N'rov and Olivya

Search Committee: A'sran, D'vro, Dahlia, Ka'ge, Mirinda, N'rov, Olivya, Suireh

Caged Jewel Egg

The dreamy blue of an autumnal sky is the backdrop of this egg. Its bright sheen provides a polished gleam to the ovoid. Like so many leopard spots or diaphanous billows, areas of powder blue and deeper cerulean tint and shade the shell in places, lending depth and character, making what was pretty now honestly beautiful. As if to hold, to guard, those blue riches -- and the greater treasure inside -- thin braided arcs of bright gold pair upon both sides, crisscrossing near the rounded base and rising in a graceful pair of arches upwards to meet at the apex of the shell.

Inspiration: This egg is based off of the craft/art of wire-wrapping, and this particular image is of a cabochon of stone called larimar held firm with the grasp of gold wire, as seen here.

Credit: Breirande

In the Round Egg

From a distance, this rotund egg almost looks rounder than it is tall, more spherical than it is oblong. Cheerful, canary yellows bob in jubilant waves over an otherwise off-white shell, peppered with more muted specks of darker ochre. The vee-like pattern they create is oddly uniform, rotating around and around the shell in a manner that's almost too neat until it reaches the pointier end; there, it abruptly ends, leaving an untouched patch of negative space in its wake.

Inspiration: Knitting! Specifically, with four double-pointed needles, which is a method used to knit 'in the round' to create socks, wrists for mittens, etc.

Credit: Jocelyn

Cream and Egg

Smooth and pale, the suggestion of softness prevails upon this egg though surely it is as solid as its siblings to the touch. Whorls of faint, warm cream dapple their way about elongated curves, unevenly patterning the egg's shell, whilst flecks of something darker-- black and tiny-- scatter themselves here and there as if they have been churned through.

Inspiration: Home made vanilla ice cream. Cooking is a handicraft, right?

Credit: Mirinda

Windblown Wish Egg

Dragon eggs aren't translucent, and yet this egg with its glassy quality suggests just that. Tawny golden sand seems the backdrop even on the shell itself for the wisps of white that spider through the center, overlapping at the terminating tendrils. The brown root of each tuft press at the limits of the large round shell, as if yearning for freedom from its confines.

Inspiration: Dandelion clock necklace, as seen here.

Credit: Dahlia

Charcoal and Graphite Egg

Smudges are like smog curling over what could have been a pure white shell on this moderately sized egg. The heaviest charcoal line is striking, cutting the egg in two halves and splitting like a crack at either end. Twigs sprout from it further, the striations of it dusty and uneven, as if done by an unsteady hand or by the random perfection of nature itself. Over the widest breadth of the egg, what might be a rounded head and stark triangular beak grow from feathered sketchiness giving the likeness of some sort of bird perched upon the prominent line. Streaks create trenches of darkness within the image, swept lighter upwards and around, fading from black to grey to the haziest of off-whites to blend all together as one.

Inspiration: The abstract to ultra-realistic styles of graphite and/or charcoal art, as pictured here.

Credit: Ka'ge

Midas' Puzzle Egg

Worn away in several spots, this egg's golden shell bears inky smudges, coarse lines, and long scrapes... unless it's actually black and patched with smatterings of striking vintage gold. It is an optical illusion that has no end, but however one sees it, it can be a mesmerizing egg, from its large size and thickness through the middle, down to the antiqued quality of its curved shell.

Inspiration: The handicraft called Dhokra, which has been used in India for over 4,000 years, involves the lost wax casting technique and uses metals.

Credit: A'sran

Everyday Ingenuity Egg

With the hue and sheen of smoothed and flattened straw, fine fibrous strands seem to weave all about this unpointed egg, alternating between tiny blocks and larger rectangular lengths. It's a mid-sized egg, not large, not the sort of thing to break anyone's back; nor is its pattern symmetrical, but rather one that likes to wind off in its own direction, relying on even finer threads of crimson to appear and tie it all together.

Inspiration: Humble straw can be made into an ornament with sharp snips, a deft hand, and a little ingenuity.

Credit: N'rov

The Image Within Egg

This large egg is foreboding in its darkness, a heavy blackness covering it like a thick layer of ink hardened there and protecting further the one who lies within. But then thin lines have been taken from it, revealing oh so much more beneath. As though someone took a sharp edge to the black and wore away at it for hours on end, flecks of white to pale gold give a distinct roughened texture to it wherever exposed. Bit by bit, inch by inch lines have eaten away at the black, some denser, some farther apart. No two parts are quite the same, the patterns granting the likeness of light falling on fur and hide, and perhaps the semblance of curious eyes peering out from within the negative image.

Inspiration: Scratchboard, as seen here.

Credit: Ka'ge

Fuzzy Wuzzy Egg

What looks at first glance like a giant ball of fluff left on the sands is actually an almost perfectly round, terribly small egg. Terracotta in color, this egg has the appearance of being fuzzy from both close up or very far away, but its shell is in fact as smooth and textureless as any other. It makes for an unassuming companion to its clutchmates, often hidden behind the more colorful and striking shells.

Inspiration: Wool felting.

Credit: A'sran

Jumbled Lights Egg

This egg is large enough to seem overstuffed, its top thinner than the usual perfect ovoid, if only slightly. Its dotted colors are a bright mix, from glowing reds to greens to blues and even some very bright yellow, that lend it an artistic and effortless air. Its warm sheen is the most remarkable, especially when seen at the edges of its silhouette, a glow that changes between gold and green depending on the angle of view.

Inspiration: I once read this in a list of 'diy' projects, shoving some christmas lights in a jar. It still cracks me up, because I mean, I guess you did it yourself, but really? The insirpiration picture can be found here.

Credit: Olivya

All You Knead Is an Egg

Pleasantly plump and colored a warm ecru spattered with flecks of white, it's hard to tell where the form of this egg ends and its cradle of sand begins. Smudges of soft gray pockmark the not-quite-smooth shell giving the illusion of impressions; has it been gently nudged at by large paws and a well-meaning nose one time too many? Striations of dark honey zig and zag around the top - or is that the bottom? If there's a right side up to this ovoid that seems to prefer resting on its side, it isn't immediately evident.

Inspiration: Baking, specifically creating dough for bread. Who doesn't enjoy a fresh loaf?

Credit: Jocelyn

Spirit's Silhouette Egg

With brightest white mingling with the soft warmth of luminous gold, one might think of a perfectly formed snowdrift kissed by Rukbat's first light. Occasional winking sparkles are no doubt a trick of the light skipping over tiny shadows on the shell's surface, but the deeper brown becomes a shape, a silhouette, something that might vaguely resemble a fanned set of wings; it can't possibly actually be the occupant within, given the too-small scale on such a large egg, but perhaps the fanciful idea of it is enough to inspire some imaginations.

Inspiration: Fairy lantern! As seen here.

Credit: Dahlia

Nine Patch Egg

Brilliant green, sunny yellow, flawless white and poppy red dominate the smooth shell of this medium-sized, soft-looking egg. Each color fills a square, which are countless across its surface, though the foremost color seems to be bright white. Almost random is the placement of unclear shapes, outlined in white, that have the appearance of animals: here a sleepy ovine, there perhaps an in-motion runner, and some say at the very top, in the center of a rosy square is a fat-looking hen.

Inspiration: A farm animal quilt!

Credit: A'sran

Sawed Scene Egg

From far away, this bottom-heavy egg appears as nothing more than a conglomeration of tans, light browns, and soft yellows that randomly shade its shell. Only when one is close does that focus render mere colors into complex, if blocky images: a swooping avian here, a coiled tunnelsnake there, perhaps a sitting canine, or even a firelizard... all seemingly carved from various types of wood. At the broader base of this egg, color pools like curls of wood chips, large slivers, and the sawdust of effort piled up like the leavings of some crafter's artistic interpretation.

Inspiration: This egg is based off of the craft of chainsaw wood sculpting.

Credit: Alida

Folds and Wrinkles Egg

Without touching this egg, it would be hard to prove its smoothness. Its wrinkles are as parchment folded on and over itself repeatedly, creating the semblance of sharp edges and rough surfaces upon the rather large egg. Edges are bent and shaped as if they themselves make the ovoid shape possible. Geometric triangles and squares within rectangles provide stark lines between shades of the same pale yellow-orange hue, like light falling differently but predictably at every deliberate angle.

Inspiration: Origami folding, as seen here.

Credit: Ka'ge

Tee-Tee Egg

This egg looks ridiculously soft, the texture almost fluffy. Made up of a pattern of light pinks, whites and creams, it is smaller than most of the clutch. Its lines are formed in a careful pattern of stitches that are almost too perfect. Each line, it seems, has been created with the love and care of a mother, and even being dragged through the sands from one spot to another won't lessen their perfection until it's ready to hatch.

Inspiration: Tee-tee is what my niece calls the blanket that my mom crocheted for her. She carries it around everywhere and it's super cute and-- Yeah. :)

Credit: Olivya

Fire-Sculpted Egg

An egg of middling size, that is all it would claim of any mediocre element. It's shaped in seemingly perfect proportions, a wide-set base sloping gently to its softly narrowed apex. Brilliance rings it from top to bottom with thin strands of oranges, golds, yellows and reds. The horizontal pattern is wispy and unevenly intermingled together, yet artfully balanced in the hues like shifting sands or layers of ancient stone. Darks and lights, lights and darks, all have a warm fiery glow as if melted deeply into the shell itself. There's a glossy sheen which polishes it in its entirety, making the colors appear inset and not themselves on the surface: so smooth, so pure, it might as well be as delicate and eloquent as glass itself.

Inspiration: Glass blowing as seen here.

Credit: Ka'ge

Unbeweaveable Egg

Though large and richly hued, this is one of the oddest looking eggs in the clutch, sitting as it does almost perpetually buried in sand and eerily lopsided. Its intense mahogany color holds deep striations along its circumference, with a patterning that is reminiscent of woven threads in magnified perspective. When it is unconcealed by golden sand, its top is a giant, black splotch that almost make it looks concave, and adds to the asymmetrical look of this egg.

Inspiration: Basket weaving!

Credit: A'sran