Art of Easter Eggs
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Creativity becomes a part of everything we do. This time of year, I remember egg dying as one of my favorite childhood memories. Circles of bright colored liquid-filled coffee cups inviting “blank” eggs like a canvas welcomes an artist’s brush.
Over the years more supplies were added to the kitchen table, crayons, glue, cotton balls, and shiny sequins. Construction paper was cut for clothes to make egg-families. Rabbit ears and cotton balls had been glued on to make egg-bunnies.
Every year, the eggs became more elaborate. All the work we had done decorating eggs; only to be hunted down in the Florida sun, eaten by the dog, or cracked and peeled for ourselves. Like all works of art, it was about the process!
When I had children, the tradition of decorating eggs continued. Creativity was stepped up one year with my seven-year-old son, we spent hours decorating blown eggs with hole-punched construction paper and glued on dots in layers. Now these eggs are thirty-five years old and treasured works of art.
The tradition of egg coloring continues with our grandchildren. Last year, they soaked the eggs in all the colors, and when the layers mixed, the eggs were greyed and neutral. We talked about that, and they were careful to not mix too many colors on one egg. Then our egg dying became a fun experiment in color theory.
When we soaked eggs in primary colors, we created secondary colors. There was much excitement over the new colors we made and set upon the drying rack.
This year we talked about color-resist, and drawing with white crayons to make our designs. We were quite surprised when our words and lines disappeared in the dye. Only to discover we had used “ultra-washable” crayons! It made perfect sense after the fact, but it never occurred to me this would happen. (Note to self for next year!)
If you are fortunate enough to have a few hens in your yard, not only are you gifted with eggs to eat, but the hens are quite entertaining. Plus, they can be a source of eggs to color. We have three hens in our urban garden who lay brown eggs, their names are Rosa, Rachel, and Ruby. Maybe, we will try natural egg dyes next year.
What kind of egg masterpieces will you create? Egg painting is an ancient art, like the Ukrainian, Russian, and Polish eggs for example. Today, egg-artist still use the egg as their canvas, continuing the traditions passed down through generations no matter the culture from which it came.
No matter how basic or sophisticated your projects become, creative ideas do begin with an egg. You are an artist too, sharing with another generation at your kitchen table, which is joyful!
“A hen’s egg is quite simply, a work of art, a masterpiece of design and construction with, it has to be said, brilliant packaging!” ----Delia Smith, English chef, and author.
