The year has come and gone and Easter is upon us once again. Nowadays, we find a lot of modern methods and techniques to dye eggs. Try with us the classic egg decorating techniques: batik, wax relief, straw decorating or the simpler decals.
Batik with plants
A simple method of decorating Easter eggs is the decal of leaves, called plant batik. The principle is that before the egg is dipped in the colour bath, a leaf, four-leaf clover, flower or other plant is stuck on and then the egg is coloured. We recommend tying the egg with the petals into a square of discarded silk stocking (tie the square with string and dip the egg in the dye). You can also use a tightening bandage or other elastic material and lightly grease the petal underneath with hand cream so that it sticks to the egg and doesn't let the dye underneath.
From plants you can use for example a piece of parsley or carrot blossom, four-leaf clovers and three-leaf clovers, strawberry or raspberry leaves, young dandelion leaves, yarrow sprouts... and more. If you'd like to experiment a little this year, try our tips for dyeing eggs with natural colours.
Dyed eggs with outline and abstraction with vinegar and soda
You don't have anywhere to pick plants? Never mind, try decorating your eggs with an outline, i.e. a paper pattern (flowers, butterflies, suns, bunnies, etc.) that you cut out, glue onto the egg and then dip into a colour bath. Allow the paint to dry and then remove the paper decorations. If you polish the egg with a skewer, it will shine beautifully.
The abstract painting on Easter eggs is simply a bomb that you must try. All you need to do is boil your eggs solid, have food coloring (egg paint), water, vinegar, baking soda, a larger bowl and a grid on hand. Boil the eggs first and in the meantime, prepare the colours - just mix a teaspoon of soda together with a teaspoon of water and food colouring. Mix as many colours as you want on the egg individually in small bowls. Brush the colours of your choice onto the cooled eggs, or paint designs according to your imagination, which knows no bounds. The final step is to use vinegar - place the coloured eggs in a larger bowl and slowly pour the vinegar over them. The reaction of the vinegar and baking soda will create more intense colours that will interact with each other. You don't necessarily have to pour the vinegar over the whole egg, if you want to, apply it with a dropper to just part of the shell. Then let the eggs dry on the grid.
Classic wax batik
This ancient technique of decorating Easter eggs takes a lot of patience, but the result will be worth it. You need to prepare a few things first: beeswax, a round-headed pin, a candle and a spoon. Of course, the paints we will be using must not be missing. The hot wax is used to start painting on the white egg, which is gradually dipped into the paint - from the lightest to the darkest shade. The wax gradually covers the different coloured areas and when it is removed, we get a batik pattern.
Most often we start with white lines - i.e., the areas that are to remain white are covered with wax. Then the egg is dipped in yellow paint and the areas that are to remain yellow are covered with wax. Gradually the egg goes into orange and red, the last is black ink. The egg is then stripped of the wax over the stove (candle) and the Easter egg is ready.
How do we prepare the „kahan“? Just have a thicker candle to which a bent spoon is attached so that you can melt the wax on it. A round-headed pin is stuck into something that will hold it well during the painting (pencil, stick, cork, thicker skewer, Chinese stick...), a redispero can also be used (but you must take into account that it will be destroyed by the wax). Degrease the egg with vinegar and gently draw a more intricate design on the shell. Work quickly with melted wax, it sets easily. One dip is just enough for one stroke. After dipping in the paint, dry the egg with toilet paper or a cloth and let dry well. When removing the wax, proceed slowly and be careful not to burn the paint by touching it with fire.
Wax relief
Wax relief is the original technique of decorating Czech Easter eggs. Originally, white ornaments on a coloured (usually red) background were used, but you can create many other colour combinations... Wax relief is also much simpler than wax batik. All you'll need are blown eggs, wax-rich wax, a pin and pencil, a candle and tea-cups.
Place a wax cup with a piece of beeswax in a 3:1 ratio and heat it. Allow the wax to melt completely, but be careful not to let the wax bubble too much. Stick a pin into a pencil with an eraser on the end (or a cork, skewer, stick), dip it into the cup of wax and start creating. But you have to work quickly, as the wax soon solidifies. One dip is enough for just one stroke. The pattern can be anything, but the most common combinations are drops, half stars, half circles, braids, twigs or wreaths. If you want a multi-coloured pattern, prepare several colours in candle cups at once, gradually placing them (preferably with the help of tweezers) on the torch. Leave the wax decorated egg to dry properly. Then you can use a napkin to polish the egg so that it shines beautifully.
Kraslice painted with ink
Ink painting is also one of the classic methods of decorating Easter eggs. They are usually painted with floral motifs, onion patterns (bulb) or simply according to your imagination. In addition to ink, you will also need a pen and colourless varnish.
It is painted on a washed and dried egg. White eggs are usually painted with blue ink (best for the onion pattern), coloured eggs are suitable for white ink (e.g. on dark blue). The ink dries very quickly, just be careful not to smudge the stroke you have just painted immediately after applying it. Finally, harden the drawing with colourless varnish.
Kraslice decorated with straw
Another traditional but very time-consuming method of decorating Easter eggs. It requires, of course, straw, sharp scissors, a dispersion glue that dries quickly and excess can be rolled off (e.g. Hercules) and a needle to spread the glue on the straw pieces. For decorating with straw, darker, rich pastel colours are suitable as a base, on which the pale yellow straw will stand out well.
The preparation of the straw is important: cut the individual stalks in half lengthwise with a sharp knife or razor blade and soak them in lukewarm water for about an hour.
Spread the damp, swollen stalks on a suitable mat and lay them flat. Cover them with a board and weigh them down with a sufficiently heavy weight. When the straw is dry and flat, cut it into small diamond-shaped pieces with a small sharp knife or razor blade. Traditionally, rhomboids were used to decorate Easter eggs, but feel free to try other shapes, such as narrow strips. There are no limits to your imagination. The straw pieces are attached to the egg with glue. Use the method described to make whole patterns, usually six-pointed or eight-pointed stars, from the diamond-shaped straw squares.
Kraslice decorated with wire
First, the eggs are dyed and then wires with a diameter of 0.25-0.4 mm are used to decorate the wire. They can be copper, which is soft and shapes well, but also made of other metals. Brass wire is golden in colour, bee wire is silver, or coloured wire can be found in art supplies. If you want to decorate the wires with beads, glass rocaille is suitable.
From the tools you will need a cutter and round nose pliers. You will use them to cut the wire, straighten it or twist it into spirals. An awl or large needle for adjusting loops is also suitable. You will create a netting by crossing two wires in regular sections, or one wire by catching the wire at the crossing of the previous row. Adjust the wire as needed, splice the end of the old wire with the beginning of the new, braid a piece, and cut the rest.
Scraping Easter eggs
Guessing how to properly prepare the paint for scraping is quite difficult, and among the „rejsováky“ it was a secret passed down from generation to generation. In fact, it is common for the scraping process to release heat from the hands and smear the paint onto the already scraped areas. Beginners are therefore advised to start by blowing out an egg that has been dyed with aniline paints. After the paint dries, we can take a sharp object and start scratching.
Draw the motif we are going to scratch with a white crayon. It will be easy to see and you can easily wipe off the crayon residue when you're done. It is better to draw the motif gradually. Draw the base first, scratch it out and then add details or other motifs gradually.
Do not apply too much pressure to the knife when scraping, you will puncture the shell. It is better to run the knife through the groove a few times. More scraping will produce a lighter, thicker groove. One scratch will add detail, for example on leaves or shading.
Etched Easter eggs
Especially in Wallachia, Easter eggs were also decorated by etching, which is a reverse procedure to the related wax batik. The egg is first dyed and then wax is applied to the shell. The egg is then dipped in an acidic solution, usually prepared with sauerkraut juice or vinegar water, which removes the paint from the uncovered areas. The paint will thus remain only under the applied wax pattern.
A long-forgotten method is decorating eggs with formic acid. The dyed eggs were placed in an anthill where the ants took care of the „free pattern“.
Patterns from lake screen
Do you live in pond country? Then you must know the lake nettle - it looks a bit like a long chive, but while the chive is hollow inside, the lake nettle has a white spongy flesh inside. You don't have to choose only white eggs for Easter eggs decorated with nettles, the brown shells hide underneath.
The pulp of the sieve is white and feels like a very soft foam. It is glued to the shell in strips, spirals and waves using a dough made of flour, water and liquid glue and is complemented with coloured ribbons or textiles.
Lace eggs - Madeira Easter eggs
This egg decorating technique is done by drilling small holes. The embellishment then resembles Madeira lace. Although it is one of the youngest techniques for decorating Easter eggs, it is becoming more and more popular. So how to proceed? Draw a pattern on a clean egg - the places where the holes will be. Use a small model drill or engraver to drill the holes. Place the drilled eggs in a cleaning bath of Sava and water, then wash them thoroughly with water. Use hot wax to frame the drilled holes. Work with a headed pin stuck in a pencil.
You can also paint the drilled Easter eggs or apply coloured waxes (for framing). But the most popular are pure white Madeira Easter eggs. Any shell can be decorated by drilling, but this technique is best used on goose eggs that have a sufficiently hard shell. Ordinary hen eggs tend to crack.
The most famous Easter eggs from Moravia and Bohemia
The most traditional among the traditional ones are the Slovak batiked Easter eggs. Each village had its own original pattern, and they are still very recognizable today - Vnorovy u Strážnice, Ostrožská Nová Ves, Uherský Ostroh or Hluk have their own established patterns.
Borkovany in the Břeclav region is the only municipality in the Czech Republic that has had an Easter egg in its municipal emblem since 2004. Not by chance. In the small village near Klobouk u Brna, Easter was lived by a hundred little girls all year round until a few years ago. The local Easter eggs are known all over the world, where until recently, up to a hundred and fifty thousand of them were exported annually. Typical motifs include the carnation in various variations and the rose flower, ranging from the petal with a circular (sometimes reticulated) centre, to the richer hundred-petalled one with shaded petals.
Especially in Haná, the technique of decorating eggs with straw was widespread. Straws of oat or barley need to be flattened and then cut into miniature pieces of certain shapes. Between 300 and 700 shapes can be glued onto a single hen's egg Easter egg. It takes 6 to 24 hours to decorate a hen's egg, one week for an ostrich and 2 to 6 hours for a quail.
In Wallachia, whole families made a living decorating Easter eggs. The most commonly used technique was batik. In addition to geometric motifs, plant and animal motifs were also used in Wallachia. Motifs such as hearts representing love, ram's horns symbolising fertility and forks and rakes signifying a good harvest are also present. They were often batiked in white on a black egg, but orange and red were also used.
In Bohemia, the most famous are Chod easter eggs, where both colour batik and scratching were used. Today there are well-known black eggs with coloured wax relief. In the Pilsen region, eggs were often decorated with interesting inscriptions and verses, which can still be read on many preserved Easter eggs in regional museums. They often include words in German: „Pomlaska is for joy, but death is for sorrow, hesky Lord is for pleasure; zum Anndenken“. „The painted egg is the water of the heart's gift.“ „I keep a nice greeting for my pleasure in my heart, and whoever comes to me and is kind, I will give him a pommel.“
In South Bohemia, the most popular are the so-called Doudleby Magpies. These are Easter eggs decorated with wax batik, the patterns of which are „written“ with a pin head or a cut goose quill - kotejš. The most common motifs on these Easter eggs include doves, sunshine, logs, wreaths and flowers, i.e. everything that has some connection with spring. The name of the magpie is related to the colourfulness of the Easter eggs. When they are seen together, for example, in an envelope, the Easter eggs create a beautiful motley mix of colours. In South Bohemia, Easter eggs were baked into a „caletka“ - a braid of yeast dough.
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1 comment
挺不错的样子嘛！