Ukrainian Egg Decorating @ BCAE

 Christmas has come and gone as quickly as it always does, but I enjoyed every minute of it and hope that you did too! I spent the entire day with my family, hanging out in our PJs, playing games, relaxing, opening gifts, and eating delicious food (including a french toast casserole with walnuts made by my mother - you can guarantee that recipe will be blogged about soon). Having 6 siblings between the ages of 10 and 27 means there's never a dull moment, and that's what makes the holidays extra special. I'm on vacation for the next week, and after all of the quality time I've had with my family, I've decided that I want to use my time off to relax and enjoy them. Therefore, I'll also be taking a little blog vacation. Don't worry, I'll be back after the New Year. 

But, before I step back for the week, I do want to share my latest crafty experience at the BCAE. A couple of weeks ago I took the 2 part Ukrainian Egg Decorating class, something I'd never done before, and loved it!

Using hot candle wax and special tools, we learned how to apply multiple colored dyes to the eggs to make intricate designs on our eggs. We started by drawing lines on our eggs to break it into equal parts, which would help to keep our designs symmetrical. We drew as many lines as we felt we needed for guide and then drew over them with the hot wax. Anywhere the wax was, the dye would not be able to go through to the egg. The process kin of reminded me of my homemade screen printing method. 

After we dipped the eggs in one color, we added another layer of wax on the egg wherever we wanted that color to stay. Then we repeated this process over and over, working from light dyes to dark dyes until we were done.

Once we were satisfied with our colors, we melted all of the wax off of the egg with the flame of the candle. The class instructor then took the eggs home and applied a finishing coat and ornament hooks for us.

Here are some of the eggs created by the class. They were all so unique! After we did the colored eggs we learned how to use brown eggs and a special bleach solution to make a different look. Instead of being colorful these eggs ended up being white with a brown design (see my snowflake egg).

And, here are all of the eggs that I created in the class. They're not perfect, but I'm excited that there is a second installment of this class right before Easter so that I can practice the skill a little more!

See you all in 2013!

Tweet