A Patinated Brass Egg Harbors the Mystery of Creation for Designer Crystal Ellis
For the Egg Collective cofounder, the paperweight from Werkstätte Carl Auböck has come to symbolize collaboration.
For the Egg Collective cofounder, the paperweight from Werkstätte Carl Auböck has come to symbolize collaboration.
I got this egg several years ago from Carl Auböck IV himself during a trip to Vienna with my now husband. We were there for a wedding, and a friend suggested I meet the designer in person. My husband and I met Carl at his studio—the same one that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, all of the same name, had worked from. As an Auböck admirer, I still cherish the memory of meeting him. He was so warm and generous, and the work from his atelier is truly incredible.
During my visit, I purchased three brass egg paperweights: one for myself and two for my business partners, Hillary Petrie and Stephanie Beamer. Part of why we named our company Egg Collective back when we were fresh out of college is that the egg is an ancient symbol of creation—new life shrouded in mystery.
Crystal Ellis cofounded Egg Collective, a New York design firm, in 2011 with Stephanie Beamer and Hillary Petrie. The three women meld their knowledge of art, architecture, and woodworking to create furniture and other objects in their woodshop and in collaboration with local, small-scale fabricators. For Ellis, an egg from Werkstätte Carl Auböck has come to symbolize their collaboration.
Photo by Jamie Chung
When we started our careers, we didn’t know what was ahead. Working together was the dream, and now, half a lifetime later, we’re living that dream: designing together, nurturing our love of creation.
I look to the Auböck egg—which sits in my home, now wearing a dazzling patina coat—not only as a symbol that ties together our story, but also as one that represents the evolution of materiality: how materials change with time and, in my opinion, grow even more beautiful with use.
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