Tony Ladd

The highest quality limited edition prints The reproduction process

The production process

As a trained graphic illustrator and wildlife artist, Tony finds the painting of unbelievably accurate replica eggs an exciting challenge. Tony says "with nature creating such a wonderful diverse collection of colours and patterning, it is certainly a labour of love recreating these accurately!" Finding techniques to mimic the shapes and infinite patterns culminates in the most astonishing egg replicas that look so lifelike, you would swear they were the real thing.

Having visited Oxford Natural History Museum to collect the necessary data required to forge the moulds was the first step in a lengthy pursuit of excellence. Once all the dimensions and measurements had been recorded it was off to a good friend of Tony's who turned these 2D sketches into aluminium master egg shapes on a pattern makers lathe. From these master eggs silicone moulds were then poured to form a female mould master for the pouring process. The eggs are made from a special moulding plaster re-enforced with fibre-glass particles for strength.

Once the eggs have been poured and removed from the silicone moulds the real work begins. Each egg is first drilled with a tiny hole which enables Tony to hold and secure the egg whilst painting, this is usually done with a cocktail stick. Having studied the eggs of most of Britain's birds, TonyÕs is aware of not only the correct colours for each egg but also on the finish i.e. shiny, matt, or to coin a phrase eggshell finish. This is important in obtaining a true replica as Tony says he has seen a whole host of replicas which not only look like they were painted with an emulsion brush but have had a high gloss finish coat which just makes them look so un life-like. Tony uses a number of different ways to achieve the perfect replica including airbrushing, sponging and although painting with the tiniest of brushes has even been known to use a whisker from his Bengal cat to achieve the minutest of squiggles

Once the collection is complete they are mounted into bespoke cases in either dark mahogany or light beech finish. the eggs are all listed by their field and latin names and finished with a gold plaque with the family name on the front edge of the case. As a thank-you to Oxford Museum tony donated a set of Birds of Prey eggs to the Curator who said that "behind glass it was almost impossible to tell the replicas from the real thing" a great endorsement if ever it was needed?