Posted to Melkite.Org July 10, 2003

Good Eggs Nun's delicate creations are an illuminating experience Originally web posted Friday, May 9, 2003 from the Augusta Georgia Chronicle By Virginia Norton | Staff Writer Reproduction rights for this page graciously granted by www.AugustaChronicle.com  All rights reserved by www.AugustaChronicle.com

Sister Mary Vladimira marvels at a little egg stand she has made. Orders for her work already are booked through fall. ANNETTE M. DROWLETTE/STAFF

Using the tip of a knife blade, Sister Mary Vladimira Havelock lightly scraped away bits of red onion dye from a coated eggshell she held close to her face.

With each tiny scratch, a delicate, icon-style image of the Theotokos, the Mother of God, took shape on the surface of the egg, in a technique called illumination.   "Like Rembrandt, I wanted that light to come through," said Sister Mary Vladimira, one of two sisters affiliated with St. Ignatius of Antioch Catholic Melkite Church.

She and Sister Mary Vasilia Griffin came to Augusta from Brooklyn, N.Y., in February at the invitation of the Rev. Daniel Munn, pastor of St. Ignatius.   "Father said, 'You are here pastorally helping everybody you can. And if God blesses you with more sisters, then that will be wonderful,"' Sister Mary Vladimira said.

Sister Mary Vladimira learned to draw from her aunts in Texas, then picked up oil-painting, but had to stop her artwork when she entered the monastery at St. Basil the Great in Astoria, N.Y., in the early 1980s. At St. Basil, there was not enough time or money to continue painting. "I said to Mother (Superior), 'What am I going to do? I'll lose the gift,"' she said. The superior told her, "God will give it back to you in another way." Members of Catholic orders, such as the sisters, were required to become self-supporting in the late 1980s. They considered making greeting cards decorated with natural materials, and some even learned macrame, but, "In my mind, I was saying that's just not going to get it," Sister Mary Vladimira said. A sister colleague found an article about scratch-carving. Instead of creating woodsy scenes on wooden boards, the way the British do, Sister Mary Vladimira wanted to use the technique to create icons on eggs.

Egg icons created by Sister Mary Vladimira Havelock, a Melkite nun, sell for between $50 and $2,000 ANNETTE M. DROWLETTE/STAFF

Scratch-carving is similar to sgraffito in ceramics. An artist coats an object with layers of color, then fashions a design by scraping away part of the top layer, allowing the undercoat to show through. Children use the same technique when they coat paper with multi-colored crayons, blacken it with paint or crayon, then scratch in a design.

The sister who showed her how to dye the eggs with red onion skins told her that painting eggs was one thing, but she would never be able to get the detail needed by scratch-carving.

The technique of illumination involves the careful scraping of color on a dyed egg to reveal another color of dye beneath. ANNETTE M. DROWLETTE/STAFF

"She shouldn't have said that," said Sister Mary Vladimira, a former Marine who worked as an expediter for Shell Oil Company in Houston before entering religious life. "I was a very hard Marine. They were glad to see me leave." She taught herself how to correct her mistakes and how to compensate for distortions because of the rounded surface of the egg. She once created an icon of Christ with his arms outstretched so his hands alone showed on the backside of the egg. The artist started with chicken eggs, selling them for $15 apiece. Later she found suppliers for turkey, ostrich and quail eggs. The egg icons, finished with gold leaf and mounted on golden pedestals, now sell for $50 to $2,000, depending on the amount of detail. It takes about eight hours to complete a simpler design.

Sister Mary Vladimira takes commissions, but she's already booked through fall. Her first large order for 164 eggs came from a religious group planning a conference in Oklahoma. "They wanted the bishop and each sister to have an egg," said Sister Mary Vladimira, who carried the decorated eggs on her lap during the flight to the conference.

She is trying to arrange an exhibit of her work in June, but plans are incomplete. For more information, call (706) 364-9774.

Reach Virginia Norton at (706) 823-3336 or vanorton@augustachronicle.com.

--From the Saturday, May 10, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle