Happy Easter!!
Happy Easter to all my celebratory Christian readers, and to all those who just enjoy the holiday as well!
One year when my son was little, I spent the week prior to Easter blowing out eggs and dying them. Now that he’s grown and away, the eggs are packed away in boxes and stored in parts unknown. If I could get my hands on them I’d photograph them for you, because even all these years later they are beautiful, with dyes both subtle and unsubtle, interesting etched patterns and rainbow effects–definitely one of my finest crafts hours (to tell the truth, I didn’t have so many fine crafts hours, although there was also a gingerbread house we made that was stored in the attic and alas, eaten by small creatures–and not human ones, at that.)
Blown-out eggs are well worth the trouble, and why? Because they last. And nothing eats them. You only have to do them once, and you’re all set. They are a bit fragile, but not so very.
So here’s my Easter present to you (not that you couldn’t find it yourself): the instructions for blowing eggs:
First, you’ll need to make a tiny pin hole on each end of the egg. A pin works well, or a wooden kitchen skewer or even the tip of a sharp knife. Gently work the tip of the pin/skewer/knife in a circular motion until a tiny hole appears. Repeat on the other side. Then insert the pin or skewer (the knife will be too big here) far enough into the egg to break the yolk. Use your mouth [blow] to expel the contents of the egg.
And here is a more complex–but perhaps better–way, for those obsessive-compulsives among us.
These aren’t mine, but they’ll have to do as substitute:
It is not a treasured keepsake, but a LOT of fun.
Take a blown decorated egg and fill it with confetti. Glue a bit of tissue over the opening to hold the confetti in. Have a confetti egg war with everyone needing to find the ammunition. Getting close and smashing the egg on your opponents head is the preferred method. Definitely an outdoor activity though. Colder climates may have trouble preventing the mayhem from drifting into the more comfortable indoors.
Someone sent me (in an email message) a fascinating series of pictures that were of sculpted eggshells.
The nearest I could find online at a website I could link to in this comment was HERE. But although those are good, the ones in the email were better.
If anyone’s interested in seeing them, you can email me and request that I forward them; you can get my @ddress at my blog, which should be found by clicking on my “Nom de ‘Net”…
Dang, and I thought I was being creative by using rubber bands and stickers when I dyed.
Your post brings back memories – I was inspired by pretty Chinese eggs, which were created with the same technique. I also tried to teach kids to blow the yolk/stuff out eggs.
They were at the age when just saying ‘egg-blowing’ made them collapse laughing. Watching me do it was even funnier. But once they realized that the technique would make their decorated eggs last forever, they got more serious about it.
One easter we made decorated eggs as gifts. It was a lot of fun, but it required a lot of patience and effort.
The Ukrainians get the best press for their elaborate pysanky Easter eggs, but the Romanians and Hungarians do them as well. In the Romanian tradition, each egg is made specifically for a single person, with prayers attending as it is being decorated.