Eggshell art displays patient touch

Layer by layer, colors can be revealed by cutting into an eggshell - but it takes a careful hand and a lot of patience. In Taiyuan, the capital city of north China’s Shanxi Province, a man named Wang Chengxiao is a master of this art form and his work has gone viral recently.

Wang Chengxiao is doing the eggshell carvings in his own art studio.

Forty-year-old Wang fell in love with eggshell carvings two decades ago. First, he carves on a raw egg before drilling a small hole and draining it. It usually takes about a month for Wang to complete one piece and, so far, he’s created over 80 eggshell carving works.

Colors can be revealed by cutting into an eggshell, layer by layer.

Wang said he often sits for hours doing the carvings. But he never feels bored, instead he often feels a sense of peace.

“You have to deal with loneliness. Every piece of art work takes me quite a long time to complete. But I enjoy the process a lot, because I can realize my artistic ideas through the carvings, especially when working on the details,” Wang said.

Wang just uses a blade to complete the piece.

Wang majored in traditional Chinese painting in college and his eggshell artworks embrace features of Chinese paintings, often portraying landscapes and portraits.

A dark egg and a surgical knife are all it takes to complete a carving. Wang says he loves art created in this simple way.

“I enjoy traditional and simple art forms. And I believe eggshell carvings work well as art, because they are naturally colorful,” he added.

Wang wishes to open his own exhibition to showcase his eggshell works.

One of Wang’s works was sold to an art lover for about 10,000 yuan, and some other pieces have also sold for thousands of yuan. But later, Wang stopped selling his work.

He explained, “I’ve always wanted to open an exhibition of my eggshell art works. And it takes time for me to create a certain number of works. So now I don’t sell any of my pieces anymore. Hopefully, my wish will soon be fulfilled and people will see more of my lovely art at my own exhibition.”

(CGTN)