Easter Eggstravaganza!

Suzanne Metzel displays all of the eggs that have survived over the years.

These are not your typical Easter eggs

A Google search for Easter eggs brings up pastel colors, bunnies and floral patterns. But Easter eggs in the Baker-Metzel household mean something much different: Dremel tools, Sculpey polymer clay and beautiful works of art that sometimes no longer look like eggs.

Siblings Suzanne and Joanne Metzel – along with their mother, Martha Baker – started participating in a family egg-decorating contest in 2009. One of Martha’s sisters, who lives in Michigan, started it because she wanted something fun for her grandchildren to do. Thus began the Easter Egg Eggstravaganza.

The egg decorating started with feathers and googly eyes, but with so many crafty and artistic people among the family members, the adults started pulling out the stops to outdo one another. Decorations turned into full art pieces as Suzanne and Joanne created eggs that resembled animals, celebrities, presidents and plays on egg puns.

The sisters start by creating two holes in an egg with a Dremel tool; then they use gentle pressure to blow out the inside of the egg. From there, they let their creativity run wild.

“It’s not hard for me to pick a subject,” Suzanne said. “I usually decide between a few options. It all started with my first egg in 2009 being an ode to our first Black president, Barack Obama. So usually there’s something significant going on socially or politically, or there’s simply a great egg pun that needs to be commemorated in a hollowed-out chicken egg.”

When the eggs started to get more intricate, the family decided to post photos on Facebook, where friends and additional family members could vote for a winner. And now, although the family Eggstravaganza contest is no longer taking place after the kids have grown, Suzanne and Joanne continue to create.

“I looked forward to it every year,” Suzanne said, “and I didn’t want the tradition to completely die.”

Over the years, the sisters have created Eggs Benedict Arnold, Marilyn Monroe, Dr. Anthony Fauci, R2-D2 and Darth Maul, a self-portrait and Darkness from the movie Legend, among others.

Of the eggs they’ve crafted so far, Suzanne’s favorite is from 2020, when she did “Joe Eggs-otic” (Joe Exotic) from the popular Netflix series Tiger King, and Joanne created a tiger to go with it.

The two egg artists haven’t decided yet what they want to create this year, but they’re looking at options and are “egg-cited” to see their results.

Easter traditions in families run the gamut from vinegar egg dyes to baskets, egg boxing and more. Do you have a fun holiday tradition in your family? Send it to [email protected].

Editor’s Note: The writer and the subjects of this story are close friends. That doesn’t detract from the originality of their art and family tradition, but we do want to be transparent.