Detest the sight of a housefly? You cannot write off this colourful ‘eega’ so easily.
Inspired by ace director Rajamouli’s film ‘Eega’, egg shell artiste S.D. Shankar has turned out a ‘masterpiece’ of one of the most despised insects. His interest is, however, to popularise egg shell art.
He made the fly with eight egg shells and embellished it with some fancy items. The fly holds one half of a shell between its front legs. Shankar has completely used egg shells but for the wings for which he used translucent plastic sheet material. The legs have also been made cutting the egg shell and sticking the pieces together.
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“It took me eight hours, spread over two days, to make the art work. I have chosen ‘eega’ as I want egg shell art to gain popularity all over the world like Rajamouli’s films. “I wish to make mementoes with egg shells for presentation at the 100-day function of the film ‘Eega’, if Mr. Rajamouli permits me,” he says.
Masterpieces
Shankar has made several masterpieces with egg shells like a miniature motorcycle, car, helmets, musical instruments such as veena, piano, animals such as scorpion and tortoise, and utility items like jewellery boxes in the past.
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Hailing from a lower middle class family, Shankar discontinued his degree to take up a job. A body builder, he served as a physical training instructor at a private defence training college in the past. He believes that nothing in nature is useless. “I used to give the boys raw eggs before the training sessions. Suddenly I thought there was no need to discard the empty shells,” he recalls.
He decided to transform the eggshells into works of art to prove his philosophy. He, however, was against treading the beaten path and hence decided against painting on the shells.
The shells are cut and moulded in the required shapes and water colours are used to highlight them.
“In the beginning I faced great difficulty in cutting the shell. I had to discard several shells before perfecting the fine art of cutting shells. I used discarded refills and metal ware and fashion jewellery for accessories to deck up my miniature models,” he says.