The stunning examples of Fabergé’s art, exemplified in his luxurious Easter eggs, probably borrowed and elaborated this idea from the Russian tradition of painting eggs for Easter. Throughout Eastern Europe, these decorative eggs still signify this celebration.
Preparing your eggs
The traditional method of painting and waxing easter eggs is a health and safety nightmare. Polish ‘pisanki’ incorporate piercing a hole and then blowing the eggs to dispose of the yolk and white, then filling the space with hot warm wax. In some parts of eastern Europe, you’ll find that hot wax is used to draw motifs on the egg with a specially designed stylus. After this you dip the eggs in boiling vegetable water to create natural dyes. Boiling onions covers the egg in a lush yellow ochre colour, red cabbage creates a bluish purple and chilli powder can result in a bright orange hue. Once dry you peel off the wax to reveal a beautiful pattern.
Creating patterns
Or you can apply, or glue paper transfers or flowers or leaves on to the egg and then dye them. Once coloured and the template or vegetation is peeled off it’ll reveal a delicate pattern that you can paint or leave white. These practices go back over a thousand years and are still in use today in some parts of Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria with each country having their own distinctive form of decoration. In Poland, after Easter, the wax filled and decorated egg would be used in a form of combat with others to test its strength.
Painting eggs in the 21st century
Today’s methods are far simpler and less dangerous. Acrylic paints can come to the rescue and you can use an ordinary hard-boiled egg, or even a wooden egg as your starting point. Acrylics are bright, easy to use and there are numerous YouTube videos that’ll come to your rescue if you’re stuck. Apply two coats of paint for your base, leave to dry and then paint your pattern using whatever colours you like. These’ll look beautiful as an Easter table decoration or simply to present to friends alongside your chocolate eggs. Painting with acrylics also is safe for children – as long as there’s an older person around to stop the paint covering the room. Whichever your chosen method – have fun and Happy Easter.
