With encouragement from her husband, Zhao began to branch out to work on more difficult projects. Carving on eggs is not easy, as you can imagine. It's important to use just the right amount of force with the knife on the delicate surface -- otherwise it will break. And from this set of twelve Chinese Zodiacs, you can tell Zhao is a skillful egg carver.
After success carving on eggs, Zhao went on to embroider on egg shells. That seems like an impossible task, and very few people have tried it. After a lot of attempts and many failures, Zhao managed to do it. She has successfully embroidered the "rose bouquet" and other pieces. The designs are simple but cute. Embroidering on eggs takes even more patience and care than carving. Now Zhao's embroidery collection has dozens of pieces.
Zhao Wei said, "It's indeed painstaking: the egg shell is only two millimeters thick, so when I'm carving or embroidering, cut by cut or stitch by stitch, just the slightest carelessness will break the egg and waste all the previous efforts. Then there is all the work transporting the eggs from a faraway place to home, processing the egg, and then making art on it. When eggs break and all my labor is lost, I feel sad. But the joy after finishing a piece is immense, and can hardly be imagined by others. When I get up in the morning, the first thing I do is take a look at the previous day's work, before washing my face. They are like my treasures, my children. So, although there are only two of us at home, I never feel lonely."
