Decorating Eggs: An Ancient & Timeless Art

Ostara is behind us, and Easter is approaching quickly… so let’s talk eggs.

If you either celebrate Ostara or have read our post, you will know that painted eggs are often a part of the holiday. More likely though, you are aware of the Christian tradition of Easter Eggs. Right about now if you go into any grocery store across the United States, you can most likely find Easter egg dye kits front and center, just inside the door. I know growing up in a Catholic household, we looked forward to the family getting together and dipping hard boiled eggs into vinegar-based dyes.

Decorated eggs aren’t just limited to pastels, food dye, and Easter though. In cultures around the world, eggs have been seen as symbols of fertility, the circle of life, new life, un-hatched potential, hope and purity. Additionally, eggs are easy to come by and comparatively cheap (though it may not seem that way currently) which has made them a staple in households in one way or another around the world. By that logic, it really isn’t a surprise that decorating eggs is one of the oldest decorative arts and that humans have developed many different styles and traditions.

So lets talk about a couple different ways to play with this fun tradition and where they come from. I am going to focus more on traditional, can do at home egg decorating. That means that I am NOT going into the history of Faberge eggs or how to carve them out of stone. Instead, I want to talk about dying, painting, scratching, and (if you are a bit more motivated) engraving eggs.

Ostrich Egg Engraving & Etching

So I realize that this is a bit of a stretch when it comes to being duplicatable at home BUT it is doable, on my list of projects to attempt, AND one of the most ancient forms of egg decorating so I absolutely had to include it. Dating back as far as 65,000 years ago it is believed that the hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari desert used Ostrich eggs for storing water. Archeologists have long known of decorated pieces of shells with designs that could be decorative or marks of individual owners. Over time this has evolved and become more detailed and decorative rather than utilitarian and today, a carved, engraved, or etched ostrich egg can be quite ornate and sell for hundreds of dollars.

I have done some research into different techniques. Etching seems fairly easy as you basically paint etching cream in the design or picture you wish, let it sit according to the creams’ instructions, and then rinse the egg. Engraving is a bit more technical but can be accomplished by using a fine engraving tip on a Dremel and then using a fine knife for detail work. Do I sense a future project?

Scratched Chicken Eggs

In the same family as Ostrich egg engraving, as early as the 4th century, we can see chicken eggs decorated by scratching designs into the shell in Worms, Germany. Yes- that is a real place and one of the oldest cities in northern Europe. Scratching designs into shells is still a fun way to decorate, a bit more accessible than engraving Ostrich eggs, and just different enough from the classic dyed easter eggs that you can feel fancy showing them off to your friends. Brown hen eggs can be scratched right away to reveal white designs or white ones can be dyed and then scratched. This can be done a variety of ways and you can use a needle, nail, awl, Xacto knife, razor blade, Dremel, engraver… you get the point. Manual tools are easier to control depth and shading but electric tools such as a Dremel will speed

things up. Simple dot and stripe patterns are an easy starting point (pun intended) and floral motifs are classic.

Dyed Chicken Eggs

Drum roll please…. Let’s say it all together now. DYED EGGS. When I was researching I found dyed eggs in a lot of different cultures and for a lot of different occasions. Easter gets talked about a lot because Christianity is widespread with a large number of practitioners, but dyed eggs have been around a lot longer than Christianity. The original dyed egg can be traced back, once again to the ancient, decorated Ostrich eggs of Africa where they were dyed red with ochre. It is theorized that this practice may have traveled from Africa with the movement of our ancestors up into Eurasia and then Europe.

Let’s talk about a couple more current examples though. Similar to the red Ostrich eggs, hen eggs were dyed red and displayed on alters for Nowruz (on the vernal equinox) in ancient Persia and this tradition can still be seen in various Persian and Turkish faiths though the color palate has expanded. Judaism has a similar tradition where, for Passover, they display a pure white roast egg on their sedar plate. Pagans traditionally would dye and paint eggs to give as gifts when celebrating the Spring equinox. The exact origin of Easter eggs is a bit murky but common theories are that the Jewish Passover egg or the Pagan gift eggs were then adopted by Mesopotamian Orthodox Christians and dyed red to symbolize the blood of Christ. Are you seeing a trend yet? Regardless of the true origin, this red egg is what later became the Easter egg that we currently enjoy in many colors.

Originally the dyes were made from plants and what was found in nature but eventually as new colors were desired and created, many toxic fabric dyes were used. Obviously, there is more known about the harm involved and it is no longer recommended. Science has progressed and you can easily get food friendly dyes readily from the grocery store OR for more natural colors and a traditional feel you can play with the following kitchen bits and plants from the garden:

Yellow Onion Skins	Reddish Brown
Red Onion Skin	Light Blue
Chopped Beets	Bright Pink
Turmeric	Bright Yellow
Purple Cabbage+ Turmeric	Bright Green
Purple Cabbage	Bright Blue
Blueberries	Purple
Carrots	Pale Orange
Spinach	Pale Green
Violet Flowers	Very Pale Purple
Green Tea	Pale Yellow
Red Wine	Deep Red

The list goes on! There are so many natural dyes and adjusting how long they are in the dyes, how long dyes are boiled, and even if the eggs are washed or not can affect the colors. Experiment a little or a lot! A good step by step process on how to make and use the dye can be googled easy but a good one I have used is HERE. You can also play with patterns by wrapping rubber bands around eggs before dying or using wax to protect the shell from dye in patterns. In northern Britain and Scandinavia, impressions of leaves and flowers are made by affixing them against the egg, wrapping them in onion skins and then boiling the eggs. This is easily replicated by wrapping the egg and leaf or flower in panty hose and dyeing the egg however you want.

Wax Resist (Pysanky)

This is technically still dying eggs, but I felt it needed to separated into its own category. The is advanced dying. Simple in concept but precise and very time consuming.

Originally dating back to pre-Christian times, pysanky has become a Ukrainian Easter tradition. They often show complex geometric, floral, and even lace designs and are made using the wax resist method. A design is drawn on the egg in wax using a type of stylus called a kistka. The egg is then dipped into a dye, dried and a new layer of wax is drawn on and the egg is then dyed again. This process is repeated in layers starting with the lightest dyes and ending with the darkest being applied. If you are interested in trying your hand at this amazing art style, I was able to locate a booklet through the Library of Congress from the American Folklife Center that details the process and gives a great starting point (find it HERE).

Painted Eggs

Painted eggs are as old as dyed eggs and honestly pretty much the same historically BUT painting instead of dying means you can use different techniques and, in my experience, get a lot more detailed without the technical know how for something like . The sky is the limit when it comes to colors AND if it is for décor only (not being eaten), you are not limited by the type of paint. I personally like acrylics because they are affordable and very easy to work with even for beginners.

This is just scratching (lol) the surface when it comes to decorated eggs though. What about 3D art or paper machete? Could you use a pyrography tool on lower heat settings? New ideas and techniques are always popping up online and working on projects always gets me inspired to try new things. So, experiment and create something new. Let us know if you have any ideas or send them to us on our Instagram. We want to hear from you, and I am always looking for a new technique to try out myself!

Happy creating,

Taylor