The weather has kept me inside so I have been working on my eggs… you can do a lot of things with eggshells. Who knew? Eggshells can be painted, decoupaged or dyed. The ideas are endless; only limited by your imagination. A Pinterest site shows over 300 ideas for eggshell art.
My mom started beading eggs in the sixties. I watched her meticulously place beads on an eggshell using a toothpick or a needle. Sometimes she strung beads on a thread and then glued the strings on the eggs. This craft fascinated me! Every Easter I would try to make amazing decorated eggs but I was limited to the PASS dyes made for dying eggs. I was so excited when the dying kit added a packet you could add to the dye to make swirls on the eggs.
Dying eggs was a big deal when my kids were growing up.
I started beading eggs in the eighties. Then I learned how to make Pysanky eggs, Japanese Washi eggs, decoupaging eggs using embellishments and rice papers.
Eggs are called canvases. Plastic eggs are great for decoupaging and painting.
Walmart sells these eggs which have multiple uses.
Washi eggs are created at Easter, using Japanese washi paper (as used for origami), glue, and varnish. Washi eggs can be made into ornaments and decorations. A rectangle of washi paper, large enough to cover the egg is folded in half, and cut nearly to the midline every quarter inch (6 mm) to form a fringe of narrow strips. Each strip is trimmed to a point. The paper is unfolded, rolled around the egg, and glued on, a strip at a time; the strips overlap at the ends of the egg. The egg may then be varnished. (Wikipedia)
This art takes practice but they are beautiful!
Martha Stewart always does a spread each spring. She provides instruction on how to make the eggs. She used paper mache eggs which I cannot find the size I need so I use plastic eggs. They open up and can be stuffed with goodies.
Pappmaché eggs have been used to give treats since the late 19th century. These eggs originated in Germany. Since they are made from paper, they are quite fragile and some of the older eggs even had lace around the edges. Some of those vintage eggs have become quite valuable. They were introduced early in the ninet Century
Pysanky eggs are Ukranian or Polish. The process involves dyes and waxes.
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