The Exquisite Egg
By Erin Wood
A Hot Springs native, artist Isabel B. Anthony’s lifelong passion for embellishing eggs—ignited in the 1960s by a Ladies’ Home Journal article about the enameled and precious-jeweled Easter eggs of world-renowned Russian jeweler Peter Carl Fabergé—is reflected in her new book The Exquisite Egg: One Artist’s Embellished Creations.
Releasing March 1, just in time for Easter baskets, the book shares images of over 100 blown hen, goose, duck, turkey, emu, and ostrich eggs, styled and photographed by Little Rock-based food and portrait photographer Arshia Khan. Khan is co-author of the book The Modern Arkansas Table (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2015).
Anthony transforms these egg canvases into striking works of art through embellishment with decoupage, paint, Austrian sequins and beads, German miniature cotton flowers, English netting, French silk velvet ribbons, vintage jewels, chains, miniature birds, and whimsical found objects. No two are alike, each beckoning the observer with its unique narrative and personality.
Anthony shares, “The pandemic has provided welcomed time to escape into creativity and make art that will decorate the Easter tables of family and friends, art I hope will create memories and pass to future generations. I hope that families have as much fun looking at images of these eggs as I had making them.”
This 8.5 x 8.5 premium color book is available in hardback and paperback at etaliapress.com (use code SPRINGSEASTER for 15% off), as well as at local and national retailers.
Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs Et Alia Press (www.etaliapress.com). Wood is author of Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives (April 2019) and editor of and a contributor to Scars: An Anthology (2015).
