Lynne at the start of her egg art career. Lynne today.
Lynne De Boer
San Jose, California
lynniedb@sbcglobal.net
Lynne is a retired Braille teacher. She has been with her husband for 40 years and has two grown children and one granddaughter. They are both in their 16th year as Deacons in their large Christian Fellowship in Milpitas, CA. While always having some sort of craft going since childhood her main interest for the past 35 years has been quilting – until she accidentally discovered egging in 1997 on a little getaway with her husband to Solvang, CA. Outside that little Danish community is an ostrich egg ranch. Lynne saw a road sign for “ostrich eggs” and just had to have one. While Ed was paying for it she looked at it and got a mental image of what she wanted to do with it. When they got home she used a jeweler’s fine saw to cut open the egg. It took 4 hours because she had to do it by hand – back and forth, back and forth. Lynne had never seen decorated eggs before then and has learned a LOT since that day. She now has just under 500 eggs in 6 countries and here in the USA. There are NO duplicates and all are original designs. Her eggs are regular featured items at the St. Jude’s Children’s’ Research Center and Hospital auctions. She was honored with first place in both the Decorated Eggs and Carved Eggs groupings of the 2007 Eggciting Creations International Eggart Contest, with one of her carriage eggs receiving Best in Show.
Lynne now makes all her own carriage egg and baby buggy chassis, and regularly goes to antique stores and online to find the unusual bases and fine vintage and antique jewelry every one of her eggs is covered with. She creates all of the flowers decorating the eggs and no molds are used. Arctic fox, mink, sable, and sheared beaver are used for coach egg interiors, as well as imported fine silk brocades and other unusual fabrics and linings for all her other eggs. Several have had matching presentation boxes made, and most have removable music and storage levels for jewelry in both ladies’ and men’s jewelry boxes. She has created eggs for the wives of well known former football players, the daughter of the late Shah of Iran, opera singers and, of course, “ordinary” people. In 2004 she teamed up with Nicole West, an amazing sculptress of exquisite faeries, mermaids and non-fictional female figures, to create faeries and eggs as one work of art. These have become very popular on eBay and are done 2-4 times a year. She gives occasional classes on Cinderella carriages and other eggs online.
Lynne has one room in her home dedicated solely for her quilting and egging and has taken over half of the garage with her quilt frame and egg cutting/sanding/carving center. She still does sewing for family and friends, belongs to an Australia/USA quilting group that swaps blocks monthly (3 swaps currently running), spins and crochets. Her granddaughter, Hana, has grown up exploring the Egg Room and all the jewelry and other gold goodies and, at 6, has already created 2 eggs of her own. They have been antiquing partners since she was a baby, making frequent trips to favorite antique shops in different cities looking the perfect base or jewelry for future use. Hana is already planning on learning Lynne’s spinning wheel and is currently creating her first quilt.