But the eggs didn't bring in enough money to pay the bills, and after nine months and still no job, Patti went east again--to the rolling hills and limestone bluffs of northeast Iowa. She had a good friend there who is a large-animal veterinarian and she found a job she liked at a state-run trout rearing facility. Stocking streams with trout, she saw many beautiful areas in that corner of the state. She often helped with her friend's Belgian horses and mules, as well as accompanying her on vet calls.

Nine years were spent in Iowa. During that time, Patti got married, lived on an 80-acre farm, and owned her first team of horses--a pair of Percheron mares. The mares were Patti's dream-come-true and provided her with many colts to raise.

Having finally found a place to call home for a while, Patti unpacked those 100+ goose eggs and started taking her egg-painting seriously. She attended egg shows where she met other egg artists. There weren't many who painted on eggs but she learned something from each. She found vendors who sold her different kinds of eggs--emu, rhea and ostrich.

She bought a high-speed air drill and began experimenting with dental burrs to cut eggs. Some she cut in half, lining the interior in satin or velvet and putting a hinge on one side, creating what she calls a "jewel-box" egg. These are perfect for painting a fox hunt scene with the horses and hounds racing across a field while the fox, painted on a quail egg, is safely tucked inside the velvet folds, never to be caught.

Eggs featuring butterflies and moths in flight sometimes have the background cut away, leaving them "suspended." (To see some examples, visit the eggs pages.) These fragile-looking eggs are strengthened when they receive a few coats of polycrylic finish on the interior as well as the exterior.       to page 4