Easter Egg Decoration And Our Failed Experiment

I believe I'm not late with this topic although we've celebrated Easter on Sunday. My plan was to write this post and upload my own photos as I do most of the times but unfortunately our attempt to decorate Easter eggs the traditional way has failed miserably. We are not giving up on the project, there will be another attempt soon, till then, we're gathering all the material we can and learn.

Today I'm going to show you photos and videos about how it's done. The videos are in Hungarian, that's why I'm translating the text for you. Bear with me, I promise it's going to worth it.

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This is called "tojás írás" in Hungarian, which would translate in egg writing but I guess egg embroidery would be a more suitable word. The word writing comes from the technique used, which is similar to writing.

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This video below shows the whole process from preparing the egg to dying it.

Ingredients you need at first are raw eggs, a nail and an oil pump. Make a small hole on one end of the egg then make it a little bit bigger. Using the pump, you blow air into the egg, which pushes the yolk and white out. I've seen people making two small holes on each end of the egg and blow the inside of the egg out. I don't know which is easier, I've never done any of this. After this, you need to wash the eggs thoroughly.

If you want to save yourself from trouble, you can also use cooked eggs which is way more easier as there's no risk of breaking the eggs.

You're going to need a special marker, which you can't just buy from the market as it's always handmade. This is where our project went wrong. We wanted to make some but it turned out to be unsuitable for the job. I'm going to show you ours at the end of my post. For now let's watch the video and learn the proper procedure.

The marker the woman is using in the video is made of a metallic ball point refill, which is cut and cleaned. You take out the ball with a pin and clean the inside properly, then you split one end of a wooden stick, insert the metallic ball point refill and tie it so it stays still.

The actual "writing"

(1:15)
Next you're going to need a candle in a glass container or something similar to keep the marker heated all the time and beeswax. This is very important.

Heat the cut end of the refill, push it into the beeswax, heat it again so the wax melts and flows towards the other end of the refill, which you're going to use for "writing". Repeat as many times as you need till the wax is flowing out of the refill and you can write on the egg.

The design you can see on the video is called the rose design and the dots decorating the rose symbolize fertility and new life. You can chose any design and print you want as there are plenty but if you're a beginner, it's best to start with something simple till you get the hang of it. It's very difficult, believe me, I'm telling you from experience :)

Dyeing the egg

(3:14)
First the hole needs to be sealed with wax. Put the eggs in the dye and hold them down with a plastic or something. Because the eggs are empty inside they need to be pushed into the dye. Make sure you use gloves to protect your hand. Keep them in dye for 15 minutes or according to the instructions you have on the package of the dye.

There's another technique you can see at (3:40) which involves the use of vinegar, that acts as exfoliant. After you decorate the eggs, make a mixture of water and vinegar. Use 2 parts of water, 1 part of vinegar. Let is soak for 10 minutes. Use a toothbrush and clean the eggs gently and wipe with a paper towel. The woman in the video filled the petal of the flower after the exfoliation process, then dyed the eggs.

Cleaning the wax

(4:45)
Take the eggs out of the dye, let them dry. Use gloves! Use a candle to hear the wax, then clean it with a table cloth. The last part is making the eggs shine, by using oil or grease.

This is the process you can see in the video and I truly hope someone will read my blog and try it out.

Now I'm going to show you what we did with my niece.

These are the ingredients we used.

First we had to make two markers. I saw a video in which the guy used a beer can to make a marker and I thought it would work, so I bought a green coke, cut a part out of it and started to create the marker.

This is my niece, rolling the thin foil to get a needle like something.

The marker is half ready. We were told a hairbreadth is needed in order for the wax to come out.

This is me trying to "write" the egg without any success. The truth is, I had no control of the was, it was spilling all over the egg.

My niece tried to do a better job but you can see the line is not straight as the was is not even.

At that point we knew we can't do it so we tried a different technique I posted about yesterday.

Read my post here -> Decorating Easter Eggs - DIY Step-By-Step Tutorial.

Look at the results and you can judge for yourself :) At least we tried.

This is my Easter egg decoration story and I promise I'll be back soon with a better one. I'm planning to practice this till I can get something good out of it.