Craft Basket Weave Rubbings for Easter Egg Pictures

      I made these Easter baskets from crayon rubbings and a simple basket stencil that I cut from cardboard.  Then I pasted a half dozen Easter eggs into my baskets after cutting egg shapes from decorative papers. This simple Easter egg, basket craft can be accomplished by students as young as six or seven, but I would recommend it for students in second through fourth grade.

Supply List:

• crayons
• construction paper
• decorative papers
• markers and pencils
• white glue
• Woven patterned surfaces on placemats, baskets and glass or plastic plates if you can find them
• scissors

Directions:

1. Cut and trace a basket stencil. Make this shape simple and with plenty of volume sot that a rubbed texture will be obvious once the project is complete. 
2. Trace and cut the basket shape from yellow or brown construction paper. 
3. Then place the cut basket shape on top of a woven textured surface and then rub the side of a darker crayon firmly across the surface. 
4. Draw additional details onto your paper basket's handle and paste it onto an additional sheet of paper for the background.
5. Then cut and trace egg pattern onto decorative papers for your Easter eggs. You could also use wrapping paper, wallpaper, etc... for these paper eggs. Use your imagination!
6. Paste these paper Easter eggs into your basket picture.

"The weave pattern on these Easter basket is created by rubbing crayons across the surface of paper laid on the top of a Depression glass plate." Depressionware is a marvelous surface for children to make rubbings with. Don't use anything too valuable however, they may break the surface accidentally.

More Art Projects Made From Textured Rubbings:

• Craft a Fall Landscape Using Leaf Rubbings

video about rubbing textures

A Pink Feather Tree Decorated For Easter

See pink feather tree from three angles.

      Above I have posted a few photos of my "pink feather tree" decorated for Easter. Sometimes I display this Easter egg tree against a wall in a narrow spot, such as the one shown here. The tree stands upon a early American writing desk that once belonged to my mother-in-law and now sits in my dining room. There is little room to spare on top of it's narrow level desk top, so the adjustable branches of this tree suit the space perfectly! I've included mouth-blown glass eggs, doily butterflies and an additional variety of handcrafted Easter eggs on it's pink pastel branches.

• See also our family's green and white feather trees here...
• Read how to make a doll-size egg tree also

A few of the mouth-blown glass Easter eggs that hang on the pink feather tree.

At one time I had entire sets of these sweet little glass bees and butterflies.
 Now there are only two remaining. I purchased them originally from a garden
 nursery and then wired them for my Easter trees.

The Faberge Imperial Eggs

Tsar Nicholas II presented this egg to his wife.

      A Fabergé egg (Russian: Яйца Фаберже́; yaytsa faberzhe) is a jeweled egg made by the House of Fabergé from 1885 to 1917. Most were miniature eggs that were popular gifts at Easter. They were worn on a neck chain either singly or in groups.

      The most famous eggs produced by the House were the larger ones made for Alexander III and Nicholas II of Russia; these are often referred to as the 'Imperial' Fabergé eggs. Approximately 50 eggs were made; 42 have survived. Another two eggs, the Constellation and Karelian Birch eggs, were planned for 1918 but not delivered, as Nicholas II and his family were executed that year, and Nicholas had abdicated the crown the year before.

      Seven large eggs were made for the Kelch family of Moscow. The eggs are made of precious metals or hard stones decorated with combinations of enamel and gem stones. The Fabergé egg has become a symbol of luxury, and the eggs are regarded as masterpieces of the jeweler's art.

      'Fabergé egg' typically refers to products made by the company before the 1917 Revolution, but use of the Fabergé name has occasionally been disputed, and the trademark has been sold several times since the Fabergé family left Russia after 1917 (see House of Fabergé), so several companies have subsequently retailed egg-related merchandise using the Fabergé name. The trademark is currently owned by Fabergé Limited, which also makes egg-themed jewellery.

Above Right, On April 22, 1907, Tsar Nicholas II presented this egg to his wife, Alexandra Fedorovna, to commemorate the birth of the tsarevich, Alexei Nicholaievich, three years earlier. Because of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, no Imperial Easter eggs had been produced for two years. The egg contained as a surprise a diamond necklace and an ivory miniature portrait of the tsarevich framed in diamonds (now lost). Fabergé's invoice, dated April 21, 1907, listed the egg at 8,300 rubles.

Faberge Eggs, Part 1, Watch Part II here.

      The first Fabergé egg was crafted for Tsar Alexander III, who decided to give his wife, the Empress Maria Fedorovna, an Easter Egg in 1885, possibly to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their betrothal. It is believed that the Tsar’s inspiration for the piece was an egg owned by the Empress’s aunt, Princess Vilhelmine Marie of Denmark, which had captivated Maria’s imagination in her childhood. Known as the Hen Egg, it is crafted from gold. Its opaque white enameled ‘shell’ opens to reveal its first surprise, a matte yellow gold yolk. This in turn opens to reveal a multi-coloured gold hen that also opens. It contained a minute diamond replica of the Imperial Crown from which a small ruby pendant was suspended. Unfortunately, these last two surprises have been lost.

      Empress Maria was so delighted by this gift that Alexander appointed Fabergé a ‘goldsmith by special appointment to the Imperial Crown’. He commissioned another egg the following year. After that, Peter Carl Fabergé, who headed the House, was apparently given complete freedom for future Imperial Easter Eggs, as from this date their designs become more elaborate. According to the Fabergé family tradition, not even the Tsar knew what form they would take: the only requirement was that each one should contain a surprise. Following the death of Alexander III on November 1, 1894, his son presented a Fabergé egg to both his wife, the Empress Alexandra Fedorovna, and to his mother, the Dowager Empress Maria Fedorovna.

      No eggs were made for 1904 and 1905 because of the Russo-Japanese War. Once an initial design had been approved by Peter Carl Fabergé, the work was carried out by an entire team of craftsmen, among them Michael Perkhin, Henrik Wigström and Erik August Kollin.

      The Imperial eggs enjoyed great fame, and Fabergé made some other large eggs for a few select private clients, such as the Duchess of Marlborough, the Nobels, the Rothschilds and the Yusupovs. A series of seven eggs was made for the industrialist Alexander Kelch.

More Related Content:

• Mieks; website on pictures, history, whereabouts... of Fabergé eggs
• Fabergé Research Site by Christel Ludewig McCanless
• Details on each of the Fabergé Eggs
• BYU article on the eggs

More Wearers of the Laurel

      A little while ago I made a row of little chaps (masculine chaps), the future "great," in all stages of wear and tear, lovable, and beloved I know, freckled and smooth and rough and clear (all good stuff, and to a woman's heart, cuddleable!) So come along a letter, a very dear letter, from a woman person, and says she: "Please, are there no little women-children who will one day be great also? You know better, so please don't leave them out."

      So here they are---woman's, woman! All in a row for you. And surely there are great among them. These little chaps (feminine). Little girls are dainty--so I cannot show you the grubby knees of them, the scratches and mars and bruises, the poverty, as I could on the little boys. But it's there most surely!

      Who could believe that crop-headed, boyish Sara, with the squint and the Teddy-bear, will discover more magic in the scientific world some day--something that will set the world by the two pricked ears! Barbara, with the steadfast gray eyes and the "er-plain face," who speaks at the Explorers club on the far places she has gypsied through, was once this little beauty with the pale brown curls, the blue baby-ribbon wound in them, and the frothy dress. Then she was a professional beauty! Julie, with the stockings that were knit to last, the old-fashioned apron, and the hair ribbon faded and glossed with the washings and ironings that have been its lof--Julia, with the gallent little smile--any one might dream here is a great comedienne! Cissy, with the boyish hair and socks, scuffed shoes and ravaged knees, all boy save her heart--becomes a great mother. And there are famous mothers--many.

      The mother of a great suffragette and orator, a woman with a silver tongue and voice of gold, brings out her baby picture. And lo! It's a bit of a girl with a blue slip, soft hands, soft face and demure, long soft, brown curls! Just a baby girl named Dorothy Jane!

      Here is Joan. Fat and smiling, dimpled and golden, clutching a flower with all her soul. A "snap"--the sun in her eyes and her hair ablow. The material in her slip is cheap and not new. But the light in her eyes is rich and alive to sound. And one day you will pay joyously your five or ten or twenty round dollars to hear her sing! And you will sit wrapped in a magic cloak, drowned in the diamond stream of her voice. And your eyes will ache with tears and your heart beat glad and sad. Just the same Joan wore blue-print and did it not cost very much!

      And Mary, the dreamer, with the slow, soft eyes and always the best love for her violet frock, the little girl with a lonely way with her, who saw the sunset in the heaven before she did the toy at her feet--a little chaser of hoops and obscure fancies--perhaps she'll paint and write and give great dreams to the world from the head under her thatch of fine dark hair. Who knows!

     Look into the eyes and heart of your little daughter--and wonder and reverence and be afraid. For something looks back at you of greatness and splendor! And if you will search and help--you may sense the dim glost-glow of Fame's halo 'bove her hair. by Nell Brinkley     

Music video by Jon McLaughlin performing Beautiful Disaster. (C) 2007 The Island Def Jam Music Group

Clownish Egg Heads

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.

More Photos of Clown Eggs by Stan Bult:

• Clown Eggs
• The Clown Egg Register
• Clown Egg Registry

The Clown Face Registry of the United Kingdom...