When I first put my ceramic sculpture proposal to the trustees of the Chauncy Vale wildlife sanctuary I was warned that some of my eggs might go missing. I replied that I was fine with that because I really didn’t think that someone would bother to pinch the eggs. I also assumed that the eggs would only go missing if I left them down there for longer than a few days and then it would be my own silly fault.
As usual I am writing in circles.
Last Sunday the 6th of Feb was the annual ChauncyVale family day. I have been making large and small ceramic eggs over the course of the last year in readiness for this one day in the bush.
I wanted to have some nests of largish ceramic eggs about the size of emu eggs in the bush just off the side of the track that people could either see or not see, depending on how observant they are. Over the course of the year as I worked through my grief from the early death of my mother, the proposal morphed and changed so that I also had some quite large eggs and egg-like sculptures.
On Saturday the 5th I placed the eggs in situ and (this is the important bit) didn’t bother to take any photos.
Sunday morning I went down to check that I was still happy with the placement of the eggs and set up for the busy day ahead and all was well.
I had a bit of car trouble, stupid car, and when I finally turned up at Chauncy Vale an hour before opening time, everyone was already there setting up their various stalls. I got completely sidetracked and again did not take any photos of my work in situ.
From the moment the first visitors arrived I was flatstick busy. Constantly surrounded by an ever changing sea of children and also some adventurous adults we all made ceramic eggs and had heaps of fun playing in the mud together.
I honestly was that flat out I barely had time to scratch myself.
At the end of the day I packed up the car and decided that photographing the eggs could wait until the next day. I drove home totally and completely knackered but also very happy with the days effort. People had liked my work and we had made and decorated over 40 ceramic eggs, one ashtray and a snake.
I drove back down to Chauncy Vale yesterday morning to photograph the eggs and bugger me dead, heaps of them were missing. HEAPS.
Some bastard had pinched the eggs.
I was gobsmacked.
I expected some to go missing if I left them down in the bush for longer than a few days but I certainly didn’t expect the thieves to be that bloody quick. I also didn’t expect the larger eggs to be stolen because they were bloody heavy.
I made a few phone calls and the general consensus seems to be that the eggs were all there when everyone had left for the night.
I tweeted that some of the eggs were missing and luckily the gorgeous norfickchick had taken photos.
Norfick chick also blogs as sleepy dwarf and these photos are all hers that she emailed to me last night.
This next photo shows a very depleted nest. I had placed about nine eggs in this nest and by the time that sleepy dwarf had photographed them there were only 5 in the nest. I had expected that the children would move them around and that I would find them scattered all about the place. Or that children would come up to me holding eggs saying look what they had found. I didn’t expect to go back less than 24 hours after the event closed to find ALL of the eggs missing.
All of these eggs have been taken.
The Spouse and I looked in the creek because these would make a very satisfying splash but no luck.
The list of missing eggs grew longer the further up the track I walked. Both these eggs were taken.
As was the green egg on the right in this photo. These dragon eggs are quite large, about 18 inches or so high and they are quite heavy. They also have my name and the date 2010 inscribed into the bottom of them.
The little egg here next to the sculpture was also taken. I really liked this little egg as it was my prototype for a series I am developing. If you shake this little egg it makes a nice clink because there is a ceramic bead inside it.
So, all up three large eggs and about ten smaller eggs were taken.
It was a very bitter encore to what had been a fantastic day out.
