Eggsperiments 2014

This year I only did a few eggs, unlike last year's eggstravaganza of different techniques.  I found some new dyeable plastic eggs at Walmart so I went that route to see how they'd do with the dyes.  Despite my best efforts, I made a huge mess in the kitchen.

And yet I still wasn't able to dye the entire dozen in an afternoon.  They don't seem to take the PAAS kit dyes very well.  The pink one on the far left was done with 2 red PAAS tablets dissolved in just vinegar.  They don't recommend dissolving the dye tabs in water at all, or else the results will be very pastel.  The green one behind the pink was done by squirting green food colouring right on the egg.  That resulted in the deeper green shade, but it also didn't dry evenly.  The yellow & pale purple were done with gel food dye in yellow and blue.  I cut out that one egg, painted it with green acrylic paint and added the Santa.  That one on the end is dark purple acrylic paint.  One not show is painted black with a coat of red glitter paint.  It should be noted that paint takes a wicked long time to dry and requires multiple coats.  I was rapidly losing interest.

Then I broke out the drill and drew a half assed design on the egg and drilled it out.  This took awhile too because of my elbow tendonitis and the weight of the drill was making it very painful to do more than just a few holes at a time.  

Next time I'll take the time to make more even holes! 

Then I made a couple of sugar eggs that I let dry for a few days before decorating them.  The recipe for these makes enough sugar for 2 eggs.  I forgot that and realized after I coloured it blue that I had to figure out if I wanted to make 2 blue eggs and make a whole other batch for purple or what.  I decided to just throw purple dye into the blue sugar, mixed it well and it ended up coming out a nice shade.

I also decided to make the recommended royal icing which dries fast and hard.  Last year I used regular store bought icing in the can and it never truly dried all the way.  My piping skills leave much to be desired and I'd probably work out the kinks with practice.  They are pretty fun to make.

Remember the tiny pagoda I found at the flea market?  I painted it blue and went for a blue willow type design for this egg.  

And a wee chick with bunneh ears in the purple.  Those are candy flowers and candy pink pearls.

I forgot how time consuming it is, decorating these things.  Took me a couple of hours one afternoon to decorate just four of them.  I used yellow liquid food dye on this egg and loved the deep shade.  

Went a little nuts with the rhinestone strips but I just knew those crystals would look awesome against the yellow.

Here's the Santa egg, finally finished.  I painted the inside with silver glitter paint (that took 3 days to dry too, I might add)

Here's one I made for Lady Axe.  I'd gotten that red and black Jolly Roger when I won the "Talk Like A Pirate Day" Artbeads giveaway.  I painted the egg black then covered it with a thick layer of red glitter paint.  The skull piece fit perfectly against the back of the egg.  Then I glued heavy silver chain around the edge (mostly to hide my raggedly cutting job!).

A little bunny on felt grass with some candy flowers glued to it,

Including the egg with the holes drilled in it, I have completed only 5 of the dozen!  Again the big question is, what the heck am I going to do with all of these eggs?  Including all the ones I made with real shells last year!! Could I have been a Faberge' egg artist in a past life!