Tag Archives: Easter Eggs

March 13, 2013 · 10:15 pm

My Favorite Things – Making Egg Heads with My Friends Tom and Don

Yup, it’s that time of year again.  What time is that, you may ask?  Why time to gain an hour of daylight, time to start looking for the first blooms of spring, and time to eat chocolate eggs and other Easter goodies!

This weekend, it seemed fitting, therefore, to traipse down to 72nd Street to help my friend Tom decorate Easter eggs.  Up until I met Tom a few years back, my Easter egg decorating usually involved wax and dyes, and it was a pretty serious endeavor.  Tom has his own flair for doing just about everything, and with a studio stocked full of ribbons, sequins, exotic fabrics, feathers, faux jewelry and  trinkets, it’s pretty easy to get inspired – not to mention have fun!

My eggs this year spanned the centuries.  I started with a Manchu Dynasty-inspired egg…

Manchu Dynasty Egg

And then jumped forward to a 1920-ish (bored) flapper girl.

flapper egg head girl

From there it was on to present day…in an egg-head tribute to Don, Tom’s partner!  (In case you’re curious, I’ve posted a picture of Don so that you can compare likenesses.)

Don…

Don on the terrace

Don’s Egg Head…

Don egghead

And what was Tom doing while I worked on the three egg-head masterpieces above?  A portrait of his good friend, Ilona, of course!  Here she is in all of her splendor.

Tom's Ilona egghead portrait

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April 23, 2011 · 10:00 am

Just in Time for Easter – More Egg-Heads!

I went back to my friend Tom’s studio on Thursday for another marathon of egg decorating.  The weather was sublime and Tom had just bought some potted flowers for his terrace.

Tom’s terrace…

Photo of pots of spring flowers on terracotta terrace, taken by Joana Miranda

I made sure to take another picture of the view into Central Park so you could see the progress of spring greening…

Photo looking east into Central Park, taken by Joana Miranda

After tea and toast, we got to work.  Tom’s work table…

Photo of artistic workspace, taken by Joana Miranda

One of Tom’s first eggs that day was a clown so mine wouldn’t feel lonely…

Photo of cute clown egg with yellow pom-pom hair, taken by Joana Miranda

(What a pair of clowns!)

Photo of a pair of clown egg-heads, taken by Joana Miranda

Meanwhile, I was busy at work creating two more “glam” ladies to keep “fur-head lady” company…

Photo of 3 glamorous egg-head ladies created by Joana Miranda

Together with Tom’s ladies, we had quite a group of gossipers…

Photo of 5 glamorous egg-head ladies taken by Joana Miranda

The School Marm and Country Parson (Tom’s creations from a previous year) disapproved of all the noise…

Photo of School Marm and Country Parson decorated egg-heads, taken by Joana Miranda

Sometime around 3, my husband called to see if I was ever coming home.  Before he hung up, he said I should make a “conductor” egg.   Here is The Conductor (left) joined by The Chef and The Country Parson (Tom’s eggs from previous years)…

Trio of male egg-heads, photo taken by Joana Miranda

It was getting late, so Tom and I decided to assemble the crowd for photos. There was a bit of pushing and shoving as some of the older egg-heads from previous years tried to get in on the action…

Photo of mob of egg-heads trying to get in line to be photographed

Fortunately, we were able to restore order…

Photo of crowd of egg-heads taken by Joana Miranda

And, also get some individual shots.  Here’s Tom at work with his camera for a closeup of one of my glam lady eggs…

Photograph of photographer at work, taken by Joana Miranda

Meanwhile, I was having fun with the props.  (Note the hair extension and clip-on earrings)…

Photograph of Joana in the artist's studio

(I also modeled one of Tom’s Easter hats, which I thought went marvelously well with the orange cone clip-on earrings…)

Photo of Easter hat adorned with decorated Easter eggs

The egg-head ladies wanted their own group photo, but of course The Conductor jumped in to be part of the action…

Photo of 8 egg-heads, taken by Joana Miranda

Here’s the entire gang together for a final shot (note Tom’s Baseball Egg-Head with One Shoe. That will adorn a hat this Easter for Don)…

11 egg-heads decorated for Easter, photo taken by Joana Miranda

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April 20, 2011 · 6:35 pm

My Favorite Things – Easter Egg Decorating with Good Friends

When my artist friend, Tom, asked this week if I’d like to decorate Easter eggs with him, I jumped at the chance.  Tom and Don, his longtime partner, live in a wonderful historic building on the Upper West Side.  Their bird’s-eye-view apartment overlooks the roofs of the Dakota - the site of John Lennon’s assassination and still home to Yoko Ono (who apparently owns a number of apartments inside the building.)   Former tenants of the Dakota include Leonard Bernstein, Lauren Bacall, Judy Garland and a host of other celebrities!

View from Tom and Don’s balcony overlooking the Dakota…

Photo overlooking the roof of the Dakota Apartments on the Upper West Side - taken by Joana Miranda

From their balcony, looking north (under the black arrow), you can also see my apartment building…

View from Upper West Side Oliver Cromwell Building looking north, photo taken by Joana Miranda

And exquisite views east into Central Park…

View from the Oliver Cromwell building looking east into Central Park, photo taken by Joana Miranda

(By the way, the view from their balcony looking south isn’t bad, either!)

View from Oliver Cromwell building terrace looking south, photo taken by Joana Miranda

However, I didn’t come just to gawk at the views.  There was decorating to be done, so we went down a floor to Tom’s studio to get to work.  

(Tom at work sewing a dress for his egg…)

Tom at work with needle and thread sewing a costume for his egg, photo taken by Joana Miranda

Here she is all dressed and ready to party…

Fancy decorated lady egg created by Tom, photo taken by Joana Miranda

Tom also created this cutie…

Photo of cute school girl egg created by my friend Tom, photo taken by Joana Miranda

Meanwhile, my contribution to the egg-head population included a Clown and Glamorous Fur-Head Lady…

Photo of clown and glamorous fur-head egg lady decorated by Joana Miranda

I left another sassy egg-lady with her hair-do half finished.  Fortunately, I’m invited back tomorrow to remedy that.  More pictures will be hatching soon!

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