I I have finally put the  egg basket project together! I  hope you find this lesson useful..

Its a  goose egg, I  marked a  handle and cut it  out, painted  the  edges  with  gold paint, and  worried for  ages over how to  decorate it ! I wanted a  basket  weave effect, so ! first tried  gold braid woven in situ- nope, that didnt  work-it was too fiddly..so I thought about beading..seed beads didnt  look so  good- tricuts were  better  but getting the  basket  weave was  still a  hassle..getting  deadline  desperation  now- soI had a chat to EggyAnnie  on her  Wednesday  night  chat-by then I  was  thinking about using cake  decorating techniques  with  glue- its  wonderful how brainstorming  with  Annie Pattie and  Alice  set the  braincells soaring- The lightbulb went on yesterday (Thursday) why not try  mastic (paste made with bicab soda Cornflour and  water)LOL this one of  my  favourite pastes for making  roses. So out with the saucepan and  ingrediants and in a  few  minutes I had  a lovely ball of  paste to play with!

I learned  a long time  ago how to roll out paste with an even thickness, using a tile, some  credit cards and a roller. so I  set it  up last night and started work! 

I rolled strips first and  glued  them around the  side edges and  across the handle. I then used a  tiny 6 mm wide piece of  plastic card to  mark out the  basket weave  design. I  continued to paste and  mark the  paste as  I  added  it around the  egg and left it overnight to  dry..

I then drybrushed gold paint over the design to  highlight the  weave.

I filled the  basket with some  gold tinsel and  then added some  real chocolate mini  eggs!

I will convert this  egg into a  picnic  basket  after  the  holidays and maybe  add a  stand-although it  sits  very well without one.

I  hope you have a  go  with this  paste- I was  delighted with the effect!

Recipe for the  paste~

1/4 cup of  cornflour , Bicarb soda and  water. put into a  saucepan and  heat- stirring  all  the  time until it  forms a ball. Remove  from the heat and cover with a  damp cloth until its  cool enough to handle. knead well until its  smooth and pliable. keep in an  airtight bag.

 This paste dries very quickly no need to  fire or bake. colour can  be added while  working  with it  (making  a figure or flower etc) or in this  case after it is  glued in position (PVA tacky glue is fine)I will  add progressive pics of the  egg now..cheers  Dot