EGGS-QUISITE HOBBY REQUIRES FIRM HAND : WOMAN SPENDS HOURS ENGRAVING ELABORATE SCENES ON BIRD EGGS.

Byline: Stasia Scarborough Redding Record Searchlight 

Karen McKelvie's hobby is egg-zacting work.

When the Palo Cedro resident sits down to the fine detail work of engraving eggs, the world could stop and she wouldn't care.

``When I sit down (at the workbench) I don't know there's a world around me,'' she said.

What she creates are ornately carved eggs - egrets roosting in a marsh with detail so complete there are individual feathers on the birds and veins on the leaves. Some portions of the eggs are cut away to enhance the scene.

Once a woman challenged her. ``Those aren't eggs,'' she said.

``It's because they look like ivory,'' McKelvie said of the off-white sheen of the ostrich egg.

She is completely self-taught.

``I saw one egg and was absolutely flabbergasted,'' McKelvie said of a book she thumbed through three years ago. ``It was so intricate and delicate.''

Having engraved brass nameplates, she realized she had the equipment - a high-speed drill much like a dentist uses. She acquired a goose egg and went to work.

Her home now is scattered with eggs - pale emerald green swan eggs, jet black emu eggs and many of the ivory-hued ostrich eggs. In small cases are clutches of tiny white cockatiel eggs and wild duck eggs.

Most of her work incorporates a nature theme. ``I stay with birds and flowers.''

For others, she's done the Harley-Davidson eagle, horses and carousels.

She also keeps them simple - engraving and cutouts - nothing more.

``You can put hinges on them, and sequins,'' she said, but ``it spoils the eggs; it's not natural anymore.''

Someday she'll do her version of an ``ultimate egg,'' an egg that will take more work, more inspiration, than the others. The theme will be in keeping with her love of nature.

``I'd like to do Noah's Ark with the animals, because I love the animals,'' she said.

Engraving is detailed, precise and repetitious work.

The pattern is drawn on the egg in pencil, then lightly engraved. Further engraving brings out the details. Then the cutouts are made and sanded. By the end of the procedure, the egg may have been engraved six times over. Many take 15 hours.

She draws the designs freehand, a talent she developed later in life, she jokes.

``I was so bad in art (in high school) it wasn't even funny,'' she said.

Her understanding of design has developed along the way, too.

``They get more detailed as I go along. The feathers get little lines in them - as you go along, you learn to add depth.''

She shares, in a way, her hobby with her husband, Bob. Both work in their garage - he on his classic cars, she on her eggs.

``I'll go over and ask him what he thinks'' about her work, she said. In turn, he'll call her over: ``Do you think I've chopped the top off enough?''

CAPTION(S):

3 Photos

Photo: (1) Karen McKelvie works on one of her engraved o strich eggs at her Palo Cedro, Calif., home. McKelvie's skills were self-taught.

(2) McKelvie cuts away sections of an ostrich egg.

(3) A nature scene, one of McKelvie's specialties, is carved into an emu egg.

Associated Press