Friday Egg Tutorial!

I mentioned the possibility of a tutorial a few weeks ago, and darned if I didn't follow through on it! Following is a tutorial on how to make the Hollyhocks egg I featured several weeks ago. If you follow the instructions and make one of your own, send me the photo so I can post it on the blog (or just so I can see it if you are shy.)

So without further ado, let us begin.

I started with a white egg, drained and cleaned, with the drain hole plugged up with a bit of wax and sealed. I dyed the egg Black, making sure to turn it every few minutes so the egg would be evenly dyed and very dark.  It is important to make the egg as deep a color (or in this case, non-color) as possible so that the outlines will be visible and obvious in the final egg.  There's nothing more disappointing that finishing the last layer of wax and melting it all off to reveal something kind of boring, lame and without definition.

Once the egg was as dark as I needed, I dried it off and drew a few guidelines.  You can see I drew horizontal and vertical guidelines, dividing the egg into 8 equal sections.  It is not imperative, but just something I do so that I always know where I am going.  I used a white colored pencil for this so that the lines would be visible against the black.

After our guidelines are in place, we are ready to start waxing!  For the circles, I used a Medium point electric kistka, and I used a fine point for the stems and leaves. I want the lines to be pretty chunky and sturdy because I will be etching the egg in the next step.  If the wax lines are too fine, they can be etched away. After all my outlines are done, I wash some of the black dye off with Ivory dish soap (pretty much any soap will do, but avoid the ones with lotion in!) then put in full strength vinegar for several minutes to etch the surface.

This is how the egg looks after waxing the black dye layer and then etching:

Now it is time to wax over the areas of the egg we want to remain white.  I like to go from a dark center to a lighter edge on the flowers, so using the Medium kistka I draw a thick line right up against the black line at the edge of the flower.  Using the fine point kistka, I draw concentric circles inside the flowers for my color layers.  If you like, you can skip this step and not separate the layers with a white line.  

Next we decide what color we want the flowers to be.  I chose Pink because it is a deep enough color to be able to dilute it with washing two more times.

As you can see here, we will cover the inner circle of the flower with wax.  After all the deep pink areas are covered, it is time to wash the color to half strength or so.  Just put the egg under running water, rolling it around in your hand and checking every few seconds to make sure you don't over-wash.  If you do, just re-dye it pink and wash it again until you achieve the color intensity you like.

Now cover the next circle with wax and then rinse the egg under running water again until you get the color you like then dry and apply wax to this final circle.

At this point, we will be changing gears color-wise, so it is a good idea to wash off all the dye with Ivory soap.

I used Harvest Green for the stems and some of the leaves.  It is slightly gray and dull, but because the pink is so bright, I didn't want the green and the pink to be the same intensity and duke it out for supremacy.  I want a peaceful little egg.

You can see in the middle that I blobbed!  Sometimes wax just decides to plop off all at once.  Usually I can catch it in time, but this one snuck by me.  I will show you how it looks once I melt the wax off.

I wanted to use two different greens on the leaves, just for added interest. I chose Jade Green to finish this layer.

Now for the final color - I chose Violet, but you can choose anything you like.  I tried dipping it directly from Jade Green to Violet, but the color was a bit too muddy, so I washed the egg back down to white and put it in Violet.

After it dried for a couple of hours (see last Friday Egg for why I waited!), I put the egg in the toaster oven in a grocery store bought foil pan at 200 degrees F and melted the wax off.  You can also do this in the microwave, but you MUST OPEN THE SEALED END OR THE EGG WILL EXPLODE!!!  Sorry to shout, but it is enough to make you want to lie down for the rest of the day when that happens.  I want you to be happy at the end of this, not sad.  For the microwave, take a heated kistka tool and put it through the sealed end to unseal it.  Nestle it in a paper towel that is placed in a small microwave safe bowl and heat 10 seconds at a time.  When you see the wax get shiny, take it out and wipe off the wax.  IT WILL BE HOT! Sorry to shout again, but it hurts to get molten beeswax on your fingers.  I really like the low-key toaster over approach, but it is up to you.

Look closely at the next photo and you can see where I blobbed.  I don't think it detracts from the egg at all, and is really not terribly noticeable so I am not going to worry about it.  I pronounce the egg done!

You can really see in the next photo how the black lines are etched. All the other colors are lower and less shiny than black because the shell is roughed up from etching.

Happy Friday, everyone! I look forward to seeing everyone's Hollyhock eggs.

Friday Egg

A traditional pattern on a goose egg today, with some non-traditional colors.

I started with a white goose egg, and worked on a wide and intricate eternity band.  Next was Sunflower Yellow, Harvest Green, Bright Green, Peacock Blue, Harvest Orange, Scarlet and a final color of Turquoise.  I am not totally happy with this egg.  The final color looks uneven and blotchy.  I should have let it sit longer after the final dye bath. When I melt the wax off an egg that is still humid on the inside from a lot of dye baths, the humidity is forced through the pores of the egg when the air heats up and adversely affects the dye.  I like the plant under the feet of the deer and the eternity band turned out pretty well.  Sometimes it is difficult for me to get the geometry right on these wide bands because the squares squish up as they go around the more narrow top of the egg and can sometimes look awkward.

Friday Egg

Happy Friday!  Here's a sweet little brown chicken egg, transformed into a strawberry garden.  I waxed the basic lines on a regular brown egg, as you can see then etched the eggshell down to white with vinegar (the vinegar eats through eggshell).  I filled in the flowers with wax, taking advantage of the natural white color of the egg.  I dyed the egg light green and waxed, then a darker green for the larger leaves, next dark red for the strawberry seeds (which you can't really see so that was kind of a waste of time!) At this point I washed all the color off because my next color is Scarlet, which is lighter than Dark Red and following the normal progression of light to dark, this would not work.  I have experimented with the color progressions a bit and will have to do a post sometime about the bizarre outcomes (red over dark green produces beige!).  After Scarlet, I realized that I needed a little pop of bright color, so I washed it again and dyed it Sunflower yellow for the little dots.  Final dunk in black and we are all done!

I really like it a lot!  Will have to do more with fruits and vegetables.  They are somehow more "friendly" than flowers, if that makes sense.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Egg

Hot or Not?

I made this egg a while back, but hesitated to post it as a Friday Egg because I can't quite figure out if I like it or not.  I love the swirling design and the elephant, but I made a mistake in giving it a white background.  I think the main thing I dislike about it is the pink and yellow are too much of the same intensity, so you can't see the yellow dots on the circling pink lines and both are far too light against the white.  And in comparison, the blue looks jarring against such delicate colors.  

I thought if I put it away for a while and looked at it again, I would be able to decide if I like it or not but I am still on the fence.  What do you think?  Hot or not? 

Just for kicks I added a poll at the bottom of the page (scroll down past the comments area and the ad) to make it easy for you to tell me what you think - just click on the button that most agrees with your view.  As always, comments are welcome.

Friday Egg

Great colors today!  Basic traditional design, but instead of starting with a white egg, I dyed the goose egg with Pysanky Showcase Golden Yellow. After waxing all the beginning design lines, I washed the egg back down to white for a few details, then green, orange, pink, peacock blue, purple, and red.  Final color was black.  I'm happy with how it turned out - it looks like kente cloth to me.  What do you think?

This photo comes from Exploring Africa - check it out - lots of very cool pictures of kente cloth patterns.  

Okay, so here are a few more photos for your perusal.  Happy Friday!

Scale object is a nickel this week - everything costs more these days!

Craftypod podcast

I love the Craftypod podcast! Always thoughtful and informative interviews with entrepreneurs, artists, and crafters. I started listening a few years ago and then it got shuffled to the background post baby. Now that I am able to look up and look around a bit more, I have come back to Sister Diane's podcasts and love them even more than before.

This particular show was interesting to me because Sister Diane and her guest Megan Auman of Crafting an MBA talk about the difference between professional and amateur sellers on Etsy. One key topic they talk about is Etsy's business model and how important it is to Etsy that they have lots of amateur sellers who are interested in the community/social aspect of the site. Like a thunderbolt, this clarified some of the ideas that were half-formed in my head, like why should I bother to spend the time and money re-listing items or being very involved in the forums. I have been feeling vaguely guilty that I am not more interested in doing these and other things that would increase my popularity there, but am am absolved! My target market is not on Etsy, so it would be a waste of my time to devote marketing energy there.  It makes more sense for me to use them as an online store, do my marketing elsewhere, and send my customers there to purchase.

Now the question is: where is elsewhere?

I have only had a chance to listen to about half of the show, and am now off the work at the Harry Ransom Center for the afternoon, but I am sure to have a lot more thoughts about selling, Etsy, and making money from what I love to do as I listen to more.  Go check it out and leave a comment if you have any major brainstorms like I did!

Friday Egg

It's a little Matryoshka family today for the Friday egg.  I love Matryoshka nesting dolls, but nice sets are out of my price range, so I decided to make some of my own!  They don't actually next, but I am okay with that.  The large one is a goose egg and the small one is a quail egg.

I started with a dyed black egg for the outlines, then washed and etched it back down to white.  I used Pysanky Showcase Lily Rose for the lips, cheeks, and the pink rose in the bouquets they both hold.  The blue of the apron is a new blue I got from Wax Art Supply called Peacock Blue. Also from Wax Art Supply is the Harvest Orange flowers on the kerchief and the Harvest Green for the leaves in the bouquet.  I used Ukrainian Gift Shop Scarlet for the poppies and the lighter red on the apron and skirt, and UGS Dark Red for the final red of the headscarf. 

I had a lot of fun with this and am looking forward to making a few sets of these in different colorways, perhaps even a Japanese version with the dolls wearing belted kimonos.

Mama Matryoshka:

Baby Matryoshka:

And finally, one last one together with their life savings (for scale):

Happy Friday!