Decorating hard-boiled eggs with children is a typical German Easter tradition. There are so many ways to decorate eggs and over the last few years we have been trying them out- From sticker patterns to hand painting to natural dying, the possibilities are well not quite endless but certainly vast.
The only problem we have encountered along the way is what to do with all the eggs. Our children don’t like eggs and there are only so many egg sandwiches and salads my husband and I can eat. Here in Gemany it is perfectly normal to give painted hard-boiled eggs as a gift at Easter, so that is one way to offload some of them.
In the end I began collecting the egg shells left over from baking. Once the kids got the hang of handling them carefully, we had quite a lot of fun decorating them. So far this year I haven’t involved the kids. I have been experimenting with techniques and colours, both of dye and of egg. Here are a few photos of the variations I got out of purple dye. I’ll be posting the children’s version in a few days.
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| A variety of shades of purple arranged in a jar |
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To make an eggshell vase, make a finger tip sized hole in an eggshell (here I used a white egg), empty out the raw egg and rinse the egg. Pat it dry and pop it into a jar of dye. To get the two-tone effect, only fill the jar to the height you want and stabilise the eggshell by inserting the handle of a fork into the hole. This keeps the egg standing and weighs it down in the dye too. Once the egg has obtained the desired colour, remove it from the jar, leave to dry and then fill with water and small flowers. To keep the egg standing you can sit it in an eggcup or stand it into sand, salt or soil for example. I used broken walnut shells simply because I hadn’t dumped them on the compost heap after making walnut cake.
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To create this look, stick normal gold star stickers (the kind you might use for a reward chart) onto the eggshell then immerse the shell in the dye and leave until the desired colour has been obtained. We had three different brands of sticker around the house. Of those, two stuck. One type came off in the liquid. Here I used regular brown eggs and the dye took a little longer to take effect.
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The inside of the eggshells takes on a different shade of colour to the outside. Arranged in a jar or with tealights in a shallow bowl, this creates a simple and elegant Easter decoration.
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Love these! I dyed eggs with the kids last year, I think I may dye some for myself this year 🙂 #iotw
These look like fun to do! Lovely photos #iotw
Stevie x
I love these! We used to do this as children but I never realised it was a German tradition.
I love the idea of those mini vases – just gorgeous (and lovely pictures and useful instructions too!) Thank you for sharing. #iotw
Lucas
Thanks Sara!
Thanks Stevie. Yes they are a lot of fun.
I think in some ways Germany has kept quite a few traditions that seem to have dwindled in the last 30 years in Ireland and elsewhere. Real eggs are still a big thing here at Easter.
Thanks for your comment.
Thanks Lucas! They are so easy to make. Glad you like them.
Wow – these are beautiful. I too, like the jars! Such an original idea! Thanks for joining #iotw
Thank you! I really love how many shades came out of dying differnt eggs in the same dye.The jar is a preserving jar that has clips and a rubber seal but I find them so pretty and handy for storing threads or other colourful bits and bobs.