For nine years, Wells Wood Turning & Finishing in Buckfield has made wooden, decorative Easter eggs for a very prominent customer — the White House.
The Maine-made eggs have been part of the traditional Easter egg roll on the lawns of the White House since 2009.
Amanda Rose has worked for the company for 15 years, and been a painting supervisor for six of those, overseeing the look of thousands of eggs sent to Washington, D.C., every spring. This year, the egg roll takes place April 17 on the South Lawn, continuing a tradition started in 1878 by President Rutherford B. Hayes.
Manufacturing the eggs is a multi-step process, according to co-owner Simon Varney, that involves turning each piece from yellow birch on a high-capacity lathe machine, trimming the ends for shape, sanding, barrel painting with various colors and then rapidly printing images and signatures, in different ink colors, on each side of the eggs.
Rose said that it was pretty exciting at first to paint the eggs that go to the White House, but now that she has been doing it for so many years, it feels pretty normal.
“It’s a lot of work but I do enjoy making them,” she said.
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