What is an egg-friendly playground?

The eggs have been liberated!

Every once in a while there’s a deceivingly simple assignment that takes you to a creative discovery. This task also, seemed simple: Create an image for the first page of an article in a children’s magazine. The headline was Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket… There’s a Whole World of Possibilities. This straightforward photo shoot turned into a study about compliance and special needs.

Traditionally, the headline teaches you about storing valuable things in multiple locations; Diversify your stock portfolio! Backup your computer hard drive! I wanted to give it a more positive spin. Instead of being the protector, I wanted to be an enabler –Each egg is a possibility. Let them out into the world!

Given that the assignment was for a children’s magazine, a playground was a fitting set. That got me thinking; What kind of playground is inclusive, compliant and egg-friendly? Eggs are fragile and have no limbs. However, they seem to be very good at rolling and probably love doing it. So, naturally the playground had to have small rolling hills and be covered with deliciously squishy mossy grass. Except, such material wasn’t commercially available in a scale suitable for 2.5 inch creatures. Luckily, there are all kinds of weird yarns available, I am fast knitter and managed to create the surface in one evening while watching Netflix. The playground needed more activities and I had a great time designing and making models for an egg-compliant seesaw and swing. The small branch I had found from our yard, stripped and painted looked a bit bare, so I brought in some boxwood greens and attached them to the stick.

Knitting grass. First five inches ready!

Once the set was ready, all I had to do was to set the lights, shoot it and create the layout. I haven’t been able to enjoy such opulence of creativity for a while and I truly loved every second of it!