Shanghai artist creates CIIE mascot egg sculpture

Li Yafei’s goose egg sculptures featuring plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo, and chrysanthemums. (Photo/Li Yafei)

China's International Import Expo (CIIE) mascot, alongside delicate flowers, plants, animals and a three-dimensional rotating globe, these are the egg sculptures created by a 55-year-old artist from east China’s Shanghai, thepaper.cn reported on Monday.

According to Li Yafei, the creator of these beautiful egg sculptures, he came across egg sculpture online in 2016 and immediately found it fascinating. From that moment, he began to teach himself the art.

A globe, engraved by Li Yafei onto a goose egg (the pedestal) and chicken egg (main body). (Photo/Li Yafei)

Keen on photography, painting, calligraphy, and seal cutting as a young man, Li spent between 40,000 and 50,000 yuan ($5,828-$7,285) on his toolkit, not knowing what would be best to create the intricate designs. As he taught himself, he realized it didn't have to be so expensive, finding that a carving knife, with the help of modern technology, was enough to create a good egg sculpture.

“Hand skill, method, and preparation are the most important parts,” Li said, adding that all of his eggs are carefully selected when he goes to the market to buy vegetables.

Since he fell in love with sculpture, he doesn’t play mahjong and is no longer attached to his cell phone, saying that he is more gentle than he used to be.

Li Yafei’s egg sculpture of “The Eight Horses,” a famous painting by China’s renowned artist Xu Beihong. (Photo/Li Yafei)

“I can sit there engaged in the job for two or three hours in a row, sometimes I am so involved that I don’t even notice someone walking past me.”

Li has created several egg sculptures for the upcoming 2018 China International Import Expo, engraving the expo’s mascot and logo onto chicken eggs. These works of art, plus other creations, will be displayed during the exhibition, Li disclosed.

According to Li, who is now teaching junior middle school students the basics of egg sculpture, there are fewer than 500 people in the whole country that can carve eggs, and in Shanghai, there are less than three.

“Starting is easy, but you need to make great efforts if you want to become a master, just like with many other things,” Li said.