Eggs!

Here are some of the eggs I've made in my pysanky class. They aren't finish-finished. I still have the yucky task of blowing out the egg contents.  That's probably going to be one of the more harrowing tasks, too, because that's when your egg can crack.  Or even explode.  Pleasant, huh?  (No matter how hard I try, I don't think I could make any needlework explode when I finish-finished it.)  Then they'll get sprayed with clear coat.  I still need to improve my techniques, like drawing straight lines.  And segmenting the egg properly.  And I'd like to get a lot better at understanding the dying process.  Hmm.  I should have said that I still have improve at everything.  So don't laugh at my eggs, ok?  I've admitted my weaknesses!

This class focuses on using symbols and the designs we're using are quite traditional.  It reminds me of the symbols we see in samplers.  So these traditional designs are a starting point but really, anything goes.  For instance, the green egg was for St. Patrick's Day.  Just some little shamrocks, but it was a good exercise in dividing the spaces on the egg.

OK, so here they are a little closer.  See the black egg?  That was very cool.  It's just a medium sized brown egg.  We drew the designs on with our hot wax and then dipped the whole thing in black.  I love the negative effect.  Next to it is an egg that I had wanted to be dark red, but I left it in the dark red too long and it became dark maroon - even brown.  But it was fun to do.

I love my red fish egg.  I had missed a class, so the instructor had started it for me (notice her lovely and thin line work?  She works very smooth and fast)  I did the parts in yellow.  It's such a happy little egg.

The purple egg was probably the most difficult egg to do.  Lots of detail and lots of trips to the dye containers.  But I wanted to show you the top of it.  Just like stitchers, most of the egg decorators sign and date their eggs. 

I have two more classes to attend and I must say that I'll be really sorry when they are over.  I may have to buy my own dyes....it's that addicting!