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Right you are, Jem.

"The egg has a perfect form although it was made with the arse." B. Munari

Diane- That is really an interesting take on the subject. I've decorated those Easter eggs myself, Ukrainian style, with the beeswax and successive dyes. Decorated eggs, then, I would certainly classify in the package camp, since they ARE communicative, and intentionally so. Undecorated eggs, not so much. I think it still goes back to 'container' or 'package.' I love it that you have those kinds of rich, ethnic, family memories, and I believe these sensibilities work their way into our craft all the time, whether we're aware of it or not.

An unfertilized egg is a single cell. The shell, not the egg, is the package. It's perfect for the egg, I guess. And for the chick. It is functional, and it has a certain aesthetic appeal in a minimalist kind of way. The smoothness and whiteness and the even shape can seem 'perfect.' It's not yet ruined, and it is all potential. I'm from a Polish family and my aunt used to decorate eggs at Easter time in the traditional Polish way. She'd start with a plain white egg and apply beeswax in places, then dye the egg a light color like yellow. Then she'd add more wax, and dye it again, a darker color. The wax would prevent the colors from dying the egg. She'd keep going until the pattern was all filled in and then she'd buff off the wax, and there would be a multicolored pattern. Thus the symbol of new life, rebirth, anti-death, is glorified. So the perfection of eggs is what they represent -- unsullied potential. To me, this is only perceived and it's not actually perfect.

Exactly. And when you consider that, in practical application, an important function of the egg is to blend into the background as unobtrusively as possible, the most succesful eggs are the ones unnoticed...

I see what you mean, and for the most part, I agree. It comes down to the game of definitions. "Packing" -- the verb -- is defined as the putting of things into containers, usually for storage or transport. "Packaging" -- the noun -- refers to the wrapping or container in which an item is presented for sale. An egg (as you said, "at least for a particular species") doesn't differentiate itself from another egg in the way an oatmeal might differentiate itself from another brand of oatmeal.

Ok, since you ask: an egg is a wonderful container. It protects, contains, even transports. But a package? I don't know. I define packaging as a communicative container, and an egg doesn't fit the bill. Every egg (at least for a particular species) looks like every other egg. In short, there's no "branding."

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