Easter Eggs - Making your own

[ShadowHM]

I posted last year about how much fun was to be had making Easter Eggs. We did it again this year, at the cottage.

Here are a couple of photographs of the results. Major artistic talent? No. Fun making them anyway? You bet ! The second picture shows the eight-year-old's effort.

[KingOfPain]

I REALLY like dem eggs! I love the deep colors on all of them, the patterns on the 2 at the back grabbed me especially, but I think I would end up buying all of them if I see them for sale.

And, keep the hand model around, dem hands knows how to showcase eggs

BTW, are those eggs drained for keepsake? If not, can I have a couple well aged ones to throw at Occhi?

KoP

[Griselda]

Ooh, nice! I was thinking about your Pysanky post last year as we dyed our eggs this year, and I was hoping you would post again.

We just used a regular dye kit, but I would be impressed with any form of representational artwork on your eight-year-old's eggs. Ours are mostly one color, but little Gris' eggs are sporting tulle capes and various things like that

[ShadowHM]

The colours on the eggs came from little dye packets sold at the Ukrainian store - the same store that sells the little kistka tools and the beeswax plugs that are also needed for the job. This year we used yellow, pumpkin, scarlet, turquoise, light green and royal blue.

Covering scarlet with royal blue on a brown egg seems to be the key to that deep brownish black that is the final coat. We used brown eggs because they were the only sort we could get that were 'farmer fresh' and had not been subjected to any disinfectant rinse. (The rinse apparently leaves a residue that at times will cause the wax to not stick to the egg.) I rather like the more muted colours that seem to come from using brown eggs.

The designs came from a book called "A Kid's Guide to Easter Eggs", but most participants only used them as a guideline / springboard for their own ideas.

I do blow out the eggs, but only after the entire creation is done. Little hands (and even bigger hands) tend to crush a blown-out egg while doing the drawing and wax-covering part. I experimented this year with a little manual pump that purported to aid in that process, but found that the two push-pin holes at either end and a lot of lung power still worked better. So throwing them at Occhi would fail to have the desired effect.

Oh, and the stained hands are mine. It is what happens when you are the designated wiper of the kitchen counter after each egg is placed in and then removed from the dye. Having no running water at the cottage last weekend was a bit of a contributor too. You should have seen the eight-year-old's hands.

Gris, if you want to give the wax'n'dye system a try next year, let me know. If you are unable to find the tools and dyes for the job, I would be glad to put some in the mail for you.

[dathon]

Major artistic talent? No.

I would tend to disagree

Very beautiful! The design on your eight year old's egg reminds me of Native American cave drawings