Kansas Crafted Treasures

Story ID:	264
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Family History
Location:	Greenwood County Kansas USA
Year:	1996
Person:	Melba Harlan

Treasures from the Barnyard.

Scores of people across Kansas visited Topeka in the fall of 1995 to view the fabulous exhibit of the “Treasures of the Czars.” Including in the display was the tri-centennial Easter egg made by the House of Faberge in 1913.

I was not fortunate enough to be able to go to Topeka to see the famous treasures, but I recently went to see a Kansas collection of fantastic goose eggs. This display of over 50 glittering gem-encrusted eggs is the result of a farmwife turned artistic in her retirement years.

Melba Harlan has lived over 50 years on the Greenwood County farm northwest of Madison. There she lived a typical farmwife’s life as well as rearing three children. Her chores included caring for a multitude of baby animals, born of cattle, sheep and pigs they raised at different times through the years. She also was in charge of the family’s flocks of chickens, ducks, guineas and geese. Long ago there were horses grazing in the nearby pasture. The family garden was a necessary responsibility, and Melba preserved the produce, whenever possible, supplying the family with nutritional meals.

A farmwife’s work is never finished, because her barnyard activities extended to the daily feeding, watering and gathering eggs. Often the baby chicks and goslings needed protection from bad weather and preying varmints. Local predators included skunks, snakes and possums from the river and creek area as well as the prairie coyotes that inhabited the upland pastures to the north across the county road.

The farming chores were gradually reduced as retirement years approached. After a lifetime of always being busy Melba and her husband, Norman, didn’t know how to sit back and do nothing. They soon shifted their interests from the farm to making crafts to further enjoy their golden years. Norman found the time to fulfill his dream of crafting with wood. Although her husband had become busy and happy, Melba needed an outlet for her time and energy.

Raising poultry through the years had always provided lots of eggs of all sizes to make dyed Easter eggs for her children and grandchildren. Now her children lived hundreds of miles away, and the egg supply far exceeded the demands for eggs for the couple’s cooking needs and decorating for Easter holidays. With a bountiful supply of material to work with, Melba decided to try beautifying eggs more elaborately for other special occasions.

Melba started experimenting with the large white goose eggs from her own flock of African geese and Muscovy ducks. First she would wash the egg, using bleach on badly stained areas. Next she would gently break the size of a pencil in the top and bottom of the eggs and insert a sharp probe to break up the yolk. Then she would blow the contents out into a bowl and wash the interior of the egg.

Now came the fun part! Inspiration would come and a masterpiece would start taking shape. Some were made into small baskets by laying the eggs on their sides and cutting an oval opening in the top side. With the application of glitter, pearls and braiding, the resulting egg baskets are ready for sprays of tiny fake flowers. Unless intentional, no two eggs are decorated exactly alike.

For decorating material Melba says the sources are endless. Many are found just around her home, the results of a lifetime of family living. Old jewelry, beads, buttons, ribbons, lace, rickrack and miniature figures and animals are easily found. The only requirement is to be bright, glittery, glossy and rich-looking. A visit to a store handling craft supplies add a greater dimension of imaginative material to be incorporated in this unique craft. Fancy foils and gold or silver paint can be added to highlight interiors or enhance the exteriors. Melba prefers the natural color of the eggs. One special egg is fashioned with doors that open to reveal a wonderful surprise.

The recipient of one of the elaborate egg creations is the guide this artist uses for inspiration. The crafter received an order for half-dozen eggs to be used as thank you gifts for a 50th wedding anniversary, and these eggs were very elaborate with gold trim. Several years ago this farmwife hosted the members of her Extension Homemakers Unit for an all-day meeting. It was in the spring so she made goose eggs into May baskets, one for each friends at her luncheon table.

Melba pointed to one egg in her own collection that was of a completely different style. It was a “Sunbonnet Sue” creation fashioned after a well-know quilt pattern.

I received one of Melba’s fancy eggs as a Christmas gift shortly after she started making them back in 1983. Mine is a gold Christmas ornament enhanced with white pearls, gold beads and gold and green trimmings that surround an interior displaying a “Currier and Ives” winter scene of a horse-drawn sleigh with two puppies tumbling in the snow in the foreground. No doubt my own collection of “Currier and Ives” prints was the inspiration for my lovely “one of a kind gift.”

Many of the fanciful eggs are made just for Melba, for her own enjoyment in doing this unique craft and the feeling of great accomplishment she experiences when showing off row after row of her finished creations of treasures from her barnyard to her family and friends.


This story was published in Kanhastique magazine April 1996 and included 6 pictures of the fancy eggs taken by my sister Carol Garriott. As a result of this story the Greenwood County Historical Museum in Eureka, Kansas asked Melba to display them in their glass enclosed display case during Easter week that year.
The goose photo is one of the wooden crafts Melba & Norman made and gave us as a special gift.