Dyeing eggs

We've had a busy weekend - a birthday / housewarming long lunch at a friend's on Saturday (and watching the footy final! so close, such a good game) followed by the show finale on Saturday night. The whole run went really well with near-capacity audiences every night and good reviews. And then on Sunday we went round to a friend's place for an egg dyeing day! How cool is that? A friend of my friend is very experienced and talented and has all the gear - and generously taught us all, including number two son, who thought it sounded like his cup of tea. And it was. We had an absolute ball. Here is my finished egg.

Clearly a first effort but it looks awesome from a distance! It is not painted on - but dip dyed several times with a wax resist. So the first thing you do is mark up your egg into even sections with rubber bands and a pencil.

Then you use a little electric tool - like a dainty hot glue gun but with wax - to put wax on the bits that you want to remain white. Then dip it into egg dye for a few minutes, starting with the lightest colour first. 

The thick black lines are wax. Yes, a bit wobbly. Then away you go adding more wax and put it in another dye bath, as many times as you like. Pumpkin in my case, followed by pink, and royal blue, and lastly black. I found it really hard to try and think backwards - waxing the places that you didn't want colour. The last step is holding the egg carefully against a candle to melt the wax off. This is number two son with one of his masterpieces. You can see the dye jars on the table behind him.

This is my other one - it didn't work so well because the dyes didn't want to bond with the shell. It happens sometimes if the eggs have been washed. You can't use supermarket eggs apparently because they've been scrubbed, but even farmer's eggs (which these were) sometimes don't have the right surface and you can't tell until you try them! But I had fun with it anyway - do you like the feathers? Nothing like a quilting motif on your egg.

These are my son's eggs. He had so much fun with it. We were very pleased with our efforts but they really did pale in comparison with the experts ... with an attention to detail and a steady hand you can make something amazing. There are more pictures of the technique here and here. So much fun, to sit with friends in the sunshine and make something pretty. And there was cake! perfect.