Photos: Vietnam football fan makes World Cup art from eggshells

Football scarves, shirts and other memorabilia make regular fare... but eggshell art? A retired Vietnamese teacher thinks that’s the perfect medium to showcase out his fandom. Nguyen Thanh Tam, 67, spends hours every day making mascot memorabilia from hollowed-out eggs, meticulously crafted by hand. This ‘egg’celent artist has over 1,000 shell based models using chicken, ostrich and quail eggs. And while most of his World cup 2018 themed work focuses on Zabivaka the mascot, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are also in the works.

Updated on: Jun 25, 2018 12:38 PM IST

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Retired Vietnamese English teacher Nguyen Thanh Tam displays two finished models of Zabivaka (L), the 2018 Russian World Cup mascot, made from eggshells, at his home in Ho Chi Minh City. Tam, 67, spends hours every day making the models, driven by his football fanaticism -- a passion shared by millions across Vietnam glued to the 2018 Football World Cup underway in Russia. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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Nguyen Thanh Tam blows out an egg yolk as he prepares a shell for a model of Zabivaka, the 2018 Russian World Cup mascot. Most of his recent statues are of tournament mascot Zabivaka, a wolf in sports goggles kicking a football, but football heroes Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are also in the works. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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Nguyen Thanh Tam makes paper cutouts for additional fixtures on his model of Zabivaka. “Over the past few years, I have been spending my time making football mascots with eggshells as a way for me to show my love for football,” Tam said. Though not widespread in Vietnam, eggshells in art are not unheard of: traditional lacquer works often feature inlaid eggshell in lieu of white paint. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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Tam says working with the fragile shells requires sharp focus. “I love this work because it requires me to be creative, observant, meticulous and relaxed,” he said. He first developed the unique hobby around Christmas in 2002, when he was looking for the right material to make a Santa statue with his 13-year-old students. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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Tam decided that an eggshell perfectly captured Saint Nick’s rotund belly. He eventually married his passion for crafts and football and started making World Cup mascots during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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Tam says the biggest challenge is finding the right egg shape to fit the creation, so he has expanded beyond chicken eggs to include ostrich and quail. He has also widened his repertoire of egg recipes to use up all the yolks and whites he discards to make his art. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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Other creations of celebrities -- Charlie Chaplin, Barack Obama, and Gangnam Style’s PSY all feature in Nguyen‘s collection -- or birds and animals, like his porcine series to mark the Year of the Pig in 2019. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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Now he has about 1,000 of the small figurines scattered throughout his apartment, some commemorating the 2016 Rio Olympics and Euro 2016 in France. Tam doesn’t sell the delicate dolls, preferring instead to keep them on display to wow his visitors. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)

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“I make eggshell art to satisfy my passion, not for commercial purposes,” he said. He has already received a nod from Vietnam’s record centre for the most eggshell art created -- believed to be a niche category -- though he has global ambitions. “I hope one day my eggshell art will be recognised as a world record,” he said with a smile. (Thanh Nguyen / AFP)