Ana, your eggs are lovely, how long does it take you to complete one? I stand in awe and admiration when seeing these. The patience and the steady hand it must take to complete just one, never mind the talent.

Annette

Annette-- How long depends upon how many colors are involved. The brain cramps are mostly figuring out what order to dye: light stuff first.

~10 minutes per color when I have it planned, so about an hour per egg?

The magic comes after the darkest dye: looks like mud until a few minutes in warm oven melts all the beeswax and reveals the layers beneath.

Quite right about the steady hand! I cheat: use rubber bands to draw the lines. Don't tell, except I just did ;-)

Ana

How beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Way to go girl.

My first husband was Russian, and his Mama and G'mama did the eggs too. I was always in awe of them.

Yours are gorgeous! I have lots of patience, but not the talent for this.

Janie

Those aren't eggs! Those are little works of art. I couldn't bare to break one open. How beautiful, no matter how you did them ;)

Happy happy to you too!!
MeMo

Believe me, MeMo, if one of those eggs gets broken, it's a minor tragedy!

Traditional method is to dye raw eggs and let the insides slowly rot, but I blow mine out with a tiny pinhole in the top and a slightly larger hole in the bottom through which I use a long pin to scramble the contents. Fill with sand so they sink when dyeing, seal holes with wax. Remove sand when done and they're "light as a feather".

If you look closely, you might see the sequins and pearl beads I use to cap the holes and the fishing line to hang them as ornaments.

You have the patience Janie? Give it a try. Talent is mostly recognizing a design which might be appropriate. I often use patchwork quilting patterns.

What beautiful works of art!

That's amazing! What an artist!

Edna

Truly beautiful! What a great skill and custom to pass along.

Cameron

Ana ~ Those are absolutely beautiful. What a wonderful talent, and how wonderful that your Mom taught you.

FlowerLady

Can't believe I missed this . . .
Your eggs are WONDERFUL, Ana!
I always knew you had a great brain, but I see you are blessed with much more than that!

I have a pretty pisanki egg that was made by our dear Kent/Slubber last Christmas. I love it.

Patti

What do you use for dye and how do you dye them?

Beautiful!!!! Those are just wonderful!

I still have mine from Kent and LOVE it!

Leasa

Ha! Thanks y'all. Really though, mine were for a laugh, Ana's are GORGEOUS! I still fiddle with them now and then, but I lack the patience to do the really fine patterns.

I still think an electric kistka would be a heck of a lot easier to use. Maybe I'll splurge someday. If nothing else, it would reduce my chances of catching a cat on fire. Keeping them out of here was a job in itself.

Beautiful art work, Ana! Thanks for sharing them.

kent

Aw, shucks! Thanks again!

Kayla - for those in the photo I used dyes sold for the purpose in a local craft store. Forget the brand name, but if you do a search on 'pisanki', you'll find some of the sources of my inspiration. Feel free to email me thru my member page for more info on how-to.

I'm also a knitter (Ravelry anyone?) and this winter began dyeing my own yarns. A light bulb went off: egg shells are protein, the dyes I used needed vinegar. Wool is protein and the acid dyes I'm using for that also require vinegar (or citric acid, less smelly). Sure enough, ProChem, a fiber dye supplier, has a page about using their Wash Fast Acid dyes for eggs! Only difference is that wool needs heat to set the dye. That would melt beeswax.

Kent - would love to see some of your work (hint hint). I never got serious enough to invest in an electric kistka, but did get 3 sizes of better quality ones with brass nipples. Think they're maybe parts for oil furnaces. The egg on far left of pic is from my first year's efforts using a cheapo copper 'funnel' brass-wired to a wooden dowel.

There are also electric egg blowers and sorta 3-D Spriograph tools for drawing the lines for folks who make a business of it.

Of course, you can't see the back side of the fishy one which got cracked when it dropped from a tree branch display when someone walked too close. ;-)

Here is a link that might be useful: ProChem's Coloring Eggs PDF

Don't get me started on Ravelry! I really need to actually find my camera (again) and start recording projects. Love browsing projects and reading other people's opinions. I'm doing the Morehouse alligator scarf right now, which is a treat to work on. Plus, I can now do M1's fearlessly. I'd like to try plant dyes and I was really surprised by how many flowers I have that can be used for dyeing.

I am fairly certain I don't have any pics of my eggs. I gave all the eggs away. One of my neighbors and my mother have baskets of them though, so maybe I could snap a few shots at some point. I have the cheap funnel kistka in various sizes...frustrating.

I did notice my hens' eggs, unwashed, held the dye lots better than store bought eggs. I'd like to find white shelled eggs from local sellers just to see how they'd do, I think the white shells would make the colors brighter. The blue/green shells really did a number on some of the dyes.

Don't get me started on Ravelry!
Too late, Kent, tee hee! you have mail.

For anyone else still following this thread: ProChem has the info page, but smallest quantity of dye they sell is 2 oz. DharmaTrading carries 1/2 oz quantities of Jacquard for $3.55. WAY less expensive than the ~1 Tbsp of egg dyes @ $2.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dharma

I have an egg from Kent also. It's black with a little yellow slug. It's shinier than my engagement ring. I will always treasure my hand painted egg from Kent's girls.