Mrs Marchand puts the finishing touches on a porcupine. On the table stand a finished ostrich and deer.
Berthe Marchand used her ingenuity. Needing something original for
the Easter table—something for the children to admire—she hit on the
idea of making an entire zoo of animals, using colored Easter eggs and
other odd bits of material easily obtained for a few cents at any
stationer’s.
Why don’t you do the same? It just takes patience, nimble fingers,
and extreme care in handling the eggs— which can be dropped only once!
Far left, Making a porcupine. A paper-shell nut is inserted into a clay neck on an egg. Next, the peanut legs are being carefully affixed to the roughed-out figure. Head feet, and all parts of the body not covered by clay are painted. And last, after he's got his paper eyes and comb, "Porky" receives his quills.
The finished porcupine with toothpicks for quills.
Left, Mr. Penguin. Egg, peanuts, clay, felt toothpicks. Center, The giraffe
has neck and legs of red soda straws, of course. Right, The kangaroo,
above, has a yellow-painted-egg body, a cotton pouch, and peanut legs.
The swan, just above, is made of egg, cotton,
paper fringing, and colored pipe-cleaners.
Left, The ostrich--with egg body, pipe-cleaner legs and nick, ad a
ball -with-a-hole head. Right, The most fee-ro-cious lion ever made.
Walnut head and peanut feet.
All the traditions connected with the Easter egg, its decoration, cooking and eating, are, of course, decidedly old world, and yet there is some myth among the legends of the Inca Indians which tells of a magic egg and how it may be found in some mysterious spot, and of its wonderful power. Whether or not this is one of the superstitions of the far east which Manco Capac brought with him from the other side of the Pacific is altogether unknown, but certain it is that in Asia, Africa and Europe feasts were kept in most ancient times when the egg played a prominent part. The Jews used eggs in their feast of the Passover long before the coming of Christ. In Persia colored eggs are presented at the celebration of the Solar New Year's, and extremely ancient custom with this people.
From Germany comes the singular connection of a rabbit with the Easter eggs. It is believed that this little animal steals into the house when all is quiet and hides a store of pretty eggs in most impossible places, giving the children, who must search for them, a great deal of trouble and excitement in finding them. The house mother prepares by procuring a quantity of eggs and colors them herself by wrapping them in colored calicoes, some plain and some figured.
To the country boy or girl of America Easter or "Paas," in rural vernacular, resolves itself first and foremost into a contest to see who can accumulate the greatest store of eggs, and secondly, who can eat the most.
Faces flanking Bulf's are grade-A eggheads and cream of clowntown--each is the face of a real clown. The wigs go on last as Bult finishes a head from a sketch on the far right. Never a clown himself, Bult used to be a professional magician.
The drollest collection of painted eggs in the world probably belongs
to Stan Bult, curator of a London museum. Bult’s hobby is living
part-time in the world of circus clowns—a habit he got into as a boy
when a troupe of friendly clowns lived next door. The faces he paints on
his eggs are authentic copies of those belonging to members of the
International Circus Clown Club. As secretary of the European division
of the club Bult keeps a file of faces so that clowns can avoid copying
each other. Each clown’s make-up is his professional, jealously guarded
property.
Apparently, during WWI, German prisoners were easier to pacify than during WWII. These pictures of their craft activities were taken whilst they passed the time in a French prisoner camp.
PASSING THE IDLE HOURS German captives
in France, in order to puncture the deadly monotony, spend their time
making toys out of egg shells, paper, and bread crusts, for the peasant
children.
THREE EXAMPLES OF OVO-ART On the left we have a Russian soldier
ogling a bottle of vodka—the label on this bottle had to be translated
twice in order to appear in English. On the right is the brother-in-law
of Lewis Carroll’s March Hare.
GERMAN SOLDIER AND FRENCH PIG The censor has interfered with the
explanation; we can only guess whether the artist would have called this
pleasant scene “Pals” as a satire upon his living condition, or merely
“The Commissary’s Delight”.
GERMAN SOLDIER WITH FRENCH CAPTIVE
BRITISH WARSHIPS BEWARE! This fiend of the seas is constructed of eggs, ink, paper, slue, and similar deadly materials.
GENERAL JOFFRE, SIR EDWARD GREY (Note the horns), CZAR NICHOLAS
The "He is Risen!" Easter egg is simple to craft, all you need to
make one is some festive trims and a prefabricated, fancy butterfly sticker!
The Paschal greeting is an Easter custom among Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Christians, as well as among some Roman Catholic and Protestant
Christians. Instead of "hello" or its equivalent, one is to greet
another person with "Christ is Risen!", and the response is "Truly, He
is Risen" (compare Matthew 27:64, Matthew 28:6–7, Mark 16:6, Luke 24:6, Luke 24:34).
In some cultures, such as in Russia and Serbia, it is also customary
to exchange a triple kiss on the alternating cheeks after the greeting.
Similar responses are also used in the liturgies of other Christian churches, but not so much as general greetings.
The Paschal greetings Easter egg is made from a Styrofoam half egg that was papier-mâchéd with bright, festive tissue paper and a decorative butterfly purchased from the local paper craft store. I added a little gold tinsel to the interior of the egg to emphasize the gold papers used on the butterfly and then the expression "He is Risen!" in which case a brother or sister in Christ would respond in kind with, "He is Risen Indeed!"
The finished empty tomb Easter egg, front and side.
I crafted this empty tomb Easter egg with air dry clay, a half shaped, Styrofoam egg and paint. The egg form also has a hollow interior and I will post a photo of what these look like just as soon as I can take a picture. For those of you who may be a bit intimidated by shaping your own stones from clay, there are shallow molds for sale in craft and hobby shops for the very purpose of crafting stone walls. The results are so nice that the purchase of one of these is an excellent investment.
After pressing the air dry clay into a mold, (shown below) simply adhere the printed clay to the Styrofoam egg with tacky white glue. You will then need to continue working while your clay is still wet. Use a toothpick or a fork and work the clay surface a bit by pushing deeper crevices between the stones to create a more three-dimensional stone wall surface. I let my stone tomb egg dry over night then I painted it's interior with black acrylic paint. Next, I painted the exterior stones with shades of grey and pale browns. Being satisfied with my final results, I then pasted a cross shaped sticker to the interior of the egg shaped tomb and gave my entire Easter egg a coat of acrylic varnish.
Here is an obvious question. "How do you decoupage a picture or a scene onto an egg?" Obvious question, rarely answered. Above you see a sweet example of this from a manufacturer of Easter novelty.
Here is my version of the same process, only, I've used an elaborate patterned design.
This lovely pattern was taken from a fancy dinner napkin. You need to separate the layers. Only use the top one.
Measure the length of your egg and cut rectangular strip from the napkin or tissue paper to fit neatly around it. Now you will need to cut at regular intervals, slashes into your design. Notice how I do NOT cut all the way through the rectangle. I leave about an inch uncut. This uncut central part of the rectangle is the continuous, uninterrupted part of the design that wraps around the mid section of the egg. The larger your egg the wider this section will be. After cutting this napkin thus, apply Mod Podge to the surface of your egg and carefully paste down the napkin, starting first with the middle part of the design. The fringed parts of the napkin will overlap some but the design will be preserved for the most part.
After cutting and gluing this first piece of the napkin, I then cut out parts of the design that I thought the most attractive from left over napkins and pasted these on the top and bottom parts of my egg where the design did not cover. This is because I used very large eggs for this project and my napkins were quite small.
This is the wider, bottom half of my egg that needed additional decoupage to cover it completely.
In order for your eggs to look professional, you need to use very thin tissues for this project. This insures that the design will appear uninterrupted and hand painted. Also, I was very particular about the colors of eggs that I used for the design. Had I used dark blue or purple plastic eggs, this design would not be as attractive. The napkin is very thin and the colors will show through the glue and tissue, so be selective. This egg was yellow. The one below was pink.
Patterns from left to right in order: An Old-Fashioned Calico Egg, A Design Taken From Bright Ribbons, Czechoslovakia flowers in bright colors, A row of yellow ducks on a batik egg and flowers/bow-knots from an old silk.
I've included in this post, five antique patterns for you to copy and paint on your Easter eggs this year. Have fun!
This little violet dyed, Easter egg is perhaps the oldest egg I hang on my Easter tree. It was made sometime in the 1940s or 30s. My mother-in-law hung it on her childhood Easter tree. I think the lavender food dye has lasted far longer than anyone could ever had anticipated. The violets are made from molded velveteen.
I have always been in love with Wedgwood blue earthenware. It is very expensive, however, so it is not likely that I will ever acquire much of it. I did find some "Wedgewood" look-alikes in a hobby shop many years ago and adhered these medallions to Styrofoam eggs. Then, I covered the back half of my eggs with blue paint, glitter and some vintage lace. I strung my blue, "Wedgwood"eggs on glass bead hangers. These eggs are my favorites and I hang them on one of my Easter egg trees every year.
In 1765, Wedgwood created a new earthenware form which impressed the then British Queen consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
who gave permission to call it "Queen's Ware"; this new form sold
extremely well across Europe. The following year Wedgwood bought Etruria,
a large Staffordshire estate, as both home and factory site. Wedgwood
developed a number of further industrial innovations for his company,
notably a way of measuring kiln temperatures accurately and new ware
types Black Basalt and Jasper Ware. Wedgwood's most famous ware is jasperware. It was created to look like ancient cameo glass. It was inspired by the Portland Vase,
a Roman vessel which is now a museum piece.. (The first jasperware
colour was Portland Blue, an innovation that required experiments with
more than 3,000 samples). In recognition of the importance of his
pyrometric beads (pyrometer), Josiah Wedgwood was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1783. Today, the Wedgwood Prestige collection sells replicas of some of the original designs as well as modern neo-classical style jasperware. Read more . . .
Easter eggs featuring Wedgewood look-alike medallions. Push the medallions gently into the foam egg before gluing these in place with a tacky white glue.
This Humpty-Dumpty Easter egg is much easier to make than he looks. I used a small face mold and a bit of Sculpey clay to make his face. Although, some of you who do not like to paint, could use a bit of flesh colored polymer clay instead. After un-molding the clay mask, I then pressed it onto a wooden egg with a generous amount of wood glue sandwiched between the clay and wooden surface. Then I baked the entire egg in an oven for only a few minutes at recommended temp. on the package. If I had to make the Humpty egg again, I would probably opt for air dry clay. I then let the egg cool and glued on a simple white collar and a bow tie, after I painted the head in flesh colored paint and lower portion of the egg in blue to suggest his shirt. Humpty-Dumpty named after a famous nursery rhymewas actually a relatively popular character to craft during the mid to later half of the 20th century during Easter and also for nurseries. I've included more examples of this funny egg fellow below.
Above are examples of face molds from my vast collection.
Here are a few more examples of decorated, flocked Easter eggs. These have been decorated by cutting out an oval portion of the egg and gluing a tiny vignette inside the egg. Many hobby stores sell tiny vignettes; these are not difficult to locate. I covered the inside of my eggs first with glue and transparent glitter. I also added a bit of Easter grass to cushion my Easter miniatures.
After decorating the egg on the inside, I glued rick-rack, laces and bows to the outer shell and edges to cover flaws and to add interest to the surfaces of my Easter eggs. I used hot glue for this particular project.
I purchased these dessert shop Easter eggs shaped like ice cream cones, cupcakes and petit fours. I loved the unique shapes. However, as you can see, appearances are all that I paid for; I will need to stuff them a bit more than I thought.
I also purchased a pack of Squinkies to stuff into the little people's Easter eggs, just for fun. Extra candy, a few toys, coins and printed scriptures will make up the contents of these eggs for my family's Easter egg hunt this year. Why not swipe of few of the Easter scriptures below and print them out for your little ones?
Bunnies should use caution when prepping their eggs.
The
Easter egg and that ubiquitous little Easter hare that defies all the natural
laws governing mammals are well known to childish fancy. What child has not
discovered on Easter morning a whole basket of beautiful pasque eggs and just
missed the sight of the little Easter hare that laid them? He is almost as
familiar a household personage as Santa Claus. Long hours have the children
watched in the woods for him, only to go home and find they have just missed
his visit there, and there are those beautiful eggs he left behind, in pink,
pale blue, yellow and all the colors of the rainbow, some of them
parti-colored, some painted with roses and some tied with ribbons. Of late
years this enterprising little animal has gone far as to leave china eggs
filled with bonbons, and that he leaves them there is no more doubt than that
Santa Claus comes down the chimney on Christmas Eve, and who is so disloyal as
to doubt that?
There
are various ways of preparing Easter eggs that give so much delight to little
ones. The most elaborately decorated eggs should be emptied and washed of their
contents before they are prepared. This is the most economical as well as the
most satisfactory way to do: Pierce a small hole through each end, blow out the
contents, wash the shells and leave them for several days to dry. Some eggs
shells may be gilded, some silvered and some painted in oils. Simple gifts such
as are suitable at Easter time may be conceded under these eggs.
Plain
boiled eggs, such as are served on the Easter breakfast table, may be easily
dyed with vegetable dyes, which can be procured at caterers or dealers in
confectioner’s supplies. It is not in good taste to make these eggs eaten at
the breakfast table especially elaborate. The elaborate eggs are those which
are supposed to be found incidentally after breakfast, on Easter morning, and
are for the amusement of small children. A dish of pale green, white and yellow
eggs at one end of the table or robin’s egg blue and pale yellow and white at
the other end gives the breakfast table a festive appearance. It is easy enough
to prepare a few eggs in each of these colors to obtain this effect. It is a little
difficult to get a good green in eggs. Owning to the quantity of lime in the
shells all eggs do not take this natural green color as some others will, and
it is better to color eggs a simply as possible than to use any powerful dyes
when eating them later.
It
is possible to decorate more ornamental eggs of which the contents have been
blown out. Eggs may be prepared weeks before Easter and may be hidden away
until the eventful morning. These simple eggshells when decorated in natural
colors using roses or forget-me-nots and each strung on a fancy ribbon will
last a long time, if taken care of.
The eggs of nearly all ordinary birds, from the gigantic ostrich, whose
shell is firm enough to be set in silver, to the smallest bantam, where at one
time represented in many shops at Easter time. These were decorated, to hold
various kinds of candies or for ornamental purposes. You will net to be
diligent to find decorative eggs like these in antique shops or vintage resale
in time for Easter if you live in the United States, for it is nearly impossible to find these mouth-blown, decorated eggs for sale. When my children were young, there was a chocolate shop down the street that sold these but that was highly unusual.
In order to make this Easter egg, you will need to purchase a small bag of alphabet pasta. DaVinci brand makes an alphabet pasta that is ideal and when you have finished the Easter craft, you can save the left overs for homemade tomato soup! I first cover my large, plastic egg with white glue and newsprint and set it aside on wax paper to dry over night. Then I pasted the three dimensional, paper flowers by Martha Stewart onto my egg. After letting the paper flowers dry, I then glued the pasta to spell out the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, forbearance (patience), kindness, goodness, faithfulness (loyalty), gentleness and self control. After the glue used to paste the pasta on the egg dried, I dipped my finger into a little black, acrylic paint and dabbed the alphabet letters with a bit of color. This enhanced the lettering so that it could be seen better. After the paint dried I used Mod Podge to seal the surface of the egg completely.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 - New International Version (NIV)
I used a very tacky white glue and embroidery floss to wrap these Styrofoam eggs for Easter. You can use as many colors as you like. I twisted a variegated, monochromatic colored floss on top of my Styrofoam eggs in order to get them to look like this.
Here, as you can see, I've also glued on to this Styrofoam egg, pom-poms. Use the eraser end of a pencil to press a slight indention into the foam egg where you wish to position a pom-pom. Then fill this indention with white, tacky glue and firmly press the pom-pom into it. It will take approximately 24 hours for the pom-poms to dry onto the egg. After these have dried, twist embroidery floss around each pom-pom on the egg until it looks the way you like it.
Pick up a mixed 15 bean soup bag at the grocery store and you needn't purchase so mush for variety in this craft...
You can cover Styrofoam eggs with seeds and beans in an endless variety of patterns. The large Styrofoam egg pictured has a cross at one end and a yellow flower at it's other end.
It is important to use Styrofoam eggs for this craft so that you will be able to lightly press the seeds into the egg form as you glue these down. This process will create a surface across the egg that is even and the seeds/beans will be firmly glued in place. Allow for a couple of days to complete your decorated egg. You will need to wait for sections of the egg to dry before completing others. Mod Podge the end product.
