House plans for the Easter Rabbit 🙂
Archives
Stone eggs
Classic Easter
Easter-tree
Easter table set
Victorian eggs
Natural egg dyes
Easter is coming soon, it’s time for painting eggs. Let’s use natural dyes instead of artificial paints available in shops. Several vegetables and fruits contain easy dissolving and intensive pigments.
Add water and the required natural pain in a cooking pot. Boil it for 30 minutes then remove it from the heat. Add salt and 20% vinegar. When it is room-temperature, put boiled eggs in it. It’s practical to choose eggs with white shell, hues will be much clearer. The intensity of the color can be a bit affected by the time the eggs soaking in the coloring water. If they are ready, take them out and let them dry on a grill. The process above has to be done every time a new color is desired.
Since natural dyes are more unpredictable than chemicals, prepare ourselves that we won’t get exactly the expected result. Colors of the eggs in the same dying are not always similar also. Here are some natural dying materials and the effect colors, without limitation:
Spinach, parsley – light green
Coffee – light brown
Peel of onion – light orange
Red cabbage – light blue
Blueberry – blue
Beetroot, peel of red onion – soft pink
Saffron, turmeric, carrot – yellow
Red vine – light purple
Colors achieved this way are less intensive than those by artificial paints to which we might be accustomed. These pastel shades will look good in interiors with almost any style.
Edible decoration 4.
Outdoor Easter decor
Fabergé eggs
Peter Carl Fabergé (1846-1920), French origin jeweler in Russia was known by his valuable Easter eggs made for the family of the tsar. The first one was made in 1885 and the last one in 1917. We are apprised about 71 eggs, but only 62 of them are known, the others probably are in hands of private collectors or were destroyed in the storms of history.
The collection started with a white enameled golden egg which hid a miniature hen and it hid a much smaller crown. The czarina – who got it from her husband – was so much pleased, that thereafter the tsar ordered one for every Easter. After his death, his son, Alexander II. continued the tradition. He presented a new piece not only for his wife but for his mother also.
The material of the eggs is gold in common, their surfaces are decorated with precious stones, pearls and enameling. They can be opened up or apart, inside they hide a surprise: mini chaise, dancing ballerina, miniature of the palace, portrait, music box etc.
The jeweler made similar eggs not only for the tsar’s family but for other wealthy customers also, for example for the Rothschilds and the Nobels. All of them are high-quality masterworks, unfortunately the secret of production went into the grave by Fabergé. Nobody could copy them since then.