Colouring Eggs

N.B. For all of the activities on this page - make sure the eggs have been boiled before you start. This warning is prompted by rather messy memories of someone pressing a bit too hard on a non-boiled egg which was accidentally put with the boiled ones.

Before you start with any of the egg activities, Doris K. Wall has sent in some information on making 'the perfect' boiled egg. She writes:

To make perfect boiled eggs, with the yolks yellow and fluffy, instead of green and hard, start eggs in cold water. As soon as they come to a good boil, remove them from the heat and let them steep for about 15-20 minutes.
By the way, a way to make sure your eggs are fresh, put raw egg in a glass of water. If it lays on the bottom, it's fresh. If it is on the bottom, but the small end is up, it's still okay. If it is kinda floating in the middle, but not on top, it's okay, but not very fresh. If it floats, throw it away, it's rotten.

Thanks Doris for your contribution.

Simple and Quick

Not so Messy - use crayons to colour the eggs. Scribble all over it, draw on patterns, spots, stripes or whatever!

Slightly Messier - dunk the eggs in some food dye and leave them for a time, then drain.

Marbled Eggs - This idea comes from Victoria Sanders. She writes:

Dear Sarah
I saw your site for decorating Easter eggs. Another simple idea is using Scotch tape. What you would do is place small pieces of tape on the egg, dip it in a light color, dry it, place more tape on the egg and dip it again in a darker color. You keep doing this until you feel you have enough different colors on the egg. As you peel the tape off the different colors are there under the tape. This gives a marbled look to the egg. My co-workers and I use to do this when I worked at a Community Living Skills Program. Each student, no matter what their disability was, could do all or parts of this activity.

Hope this idea will help others decorate eggs for Easter.

Thank you
Victoria Sanders

Thank *YOU* Victoria.

Cracked Easter Eggs - Sharon Brabon sent in this great idea from Cairns. Thanks Sharon. Great to have a contribution from an fellow Queenslander.

Sarah
We have made these eggs at Easter at our preschool in Cairns and also with my own children.

You will need 1 hard boiled egg for each child and strong food colouring (add vinegar to set colour)

1. Gently crack the eggs all over so that they are covered with a fine network of cracks and lines
2. Place the cracked eggs in the food colouring solution and leave for about 10 minutes.
3. Remove eggs and peel. The food colouring will have seeped into the cracks leaving a marbled look on the surface.
These eggs are safe to eat if you use non-toxic colouring.

Sharon Brabon

Crepe Paper Eggs - My mother reminded me of a German woman who used to live in our town of Childers. She would use crepe paper in the water to colour the eggs and would add onion skin to the boiling water to create a speckled effect. Can you think of a better way to recycle old streamers and crepe paper scraps? I'm going to be saving my old Christmas streamers from now on. Thanks Mum.

Just a little bit More Messier - combine the two activities above. Oil pastels seem to work really well - the colours can be really intense and they are softer when applying than the harder wax crayons.

Add some vinegar to the food dye to make the colours take to the eggs.

Slightly Tricker and a Little Longer

Totally Messy! - Use candles to drip wax onto eggs. When the wax sets, dip the egg into some dye. Take the egg out and let it drain. You can either peel the wax off or you can drip some more on and dip it in a different colour. Just another hint - use the lighter colours first. When you have finished, carefully peel off the wax.

Hollow Eggs - If you would like to do some of these projects with hollow eggs, the technique to empty the shell is not only messy (although with practice it gets less messier) but it can be time consuming tiring for your cheeks! With a pin, make a small hole in either end of an egg. Move the pin around to make sure you tear the membrane around the yolk. Here comes the really messy bit. Hover over a basin, point one end of the egg at it, and then blow through the other end until all the yolk and eggwhite is free of the egg. Make sure you rinse the egg well with water - I'll leave it up to you to work out a way, but if you get stuck, email me! Oh! What to do with the egg-innards? If it is for yourself, you can make the eggs into a nice omlete or quiche. If doing this with a class, you might not want to use the eggs for reasons of health regulations.

Hollow Egg Tip! - Thanks to Duree Rush for this tip on making the hollow eggs above.

Dear Sarah,
I was just browsing through your Easter site--great ideas! I usually make the hollow eggs with my third grade students. I set up a hot plate in my classroom. After the students blow the insides of their egg into their own bowl they go to the supervised "hot plate area" and cook their egg. This works best if you have another adult in the room to help, but I have done it alone. While some students are decorating their hollow eggs I take a few at a time to the cooking area. Thanks again for all your wonderful ideas. I'm looking forward to browsing more!

Duree Rush
Terre Haute, IN

Bring on the Chocolate

Traditional Moulds - These days it is fairly easy to find easter egg moulds and other easter related moulds. Just melt the chocolate and pour it in. The easiest way is to make a solid egg by filling the two halves, setting them and then using a thin spread of melted chocolate to "glue" them together. The more econonmic way is to coat the inside of the shell with chocolate and to make a hollow egg, joining the two halves the same way.

Let's Get Messy Again - Grab those hollow eggs from the section above, make one of the holes a little bigger, and pour (maybe trickle would be more apt?) the chocolate through the holes. Either pour in a little and move the egg around so it spreads around the sides, or pour in a lot and fill the egg. After the chocolate sets, gently peel the eggshell from the egg.

Natural Colouring

Some basic Ideas

* Saffron makes a great yellow dye.
* Beetroot makes a fabulous purple.
* Onion skins make a really nice mottled brown
* When you think about it - anything that stains those lovely white clothes of yours can stain an egg. Experiment with vegies - puree some different fruits and vegetables and see what you can come up with.

Collage

With a little bit of forethought, you can collect really interesting bits and pieces to attatch to eggs. If you dye the egg before gluing items to it, you will have an even nicer effect.

Items you might like to glue include:-
* Sequins
* Buttons
* Lace, ribbons and other such trimmings
* Small pressed flowers
* Decals
* The list is endless - add your own ideas

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