An Easter Egg Rainbow

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This year's Egg-Stravaganza was a huge success, in spite of the fact that Robb was too sick to attend, and I was only just holding it together through sheer force of will. I coughed my hacking cough throughout the entire event, which certainly wasn't very attractive.

As usual, we had a wonderful mix of participants. Artists and those who (wrongly) insist that they aren't creative. Old pros, and total beginners. I think folks had a lot of fun.

Jen made this beautiful violet-red design, on a miniature bantam eggshell.




Allie drew on her knowledge of batik (and her truly mad gardening skills) to create this beauty.




Susan and Margot made awesome flaming eggshells. I love how these turned out.




I think this one was Taylor's. (I stand corrected: this one is Barbara's. Blame the head-cold.) One of the things I really like about the Egg-Stravaganza event is that people don't feel obliged to follow traditional designs. I encourage experimentation (and embrace chaos) when I teach this technique, and I'm always delighted by what people create. I'll bet all the old Eastern European ladies who developed this artform would smile if they saw our eggs.




Melting the wax off with a heat-tool. We're using a sort of bed-of-nails, so that we don't fry our fingertips. I have Jen to thank for this innovation, although this particularly wicked-looking object is a foam carving tool from my studio.




Moving from orange into yellow, this egg is in progress. You'll see it later, among the blue eggs. The black lines are wax, that are covering a white eggshell. The next layer will encapsulate the yellow dye.




Heading out of yellow, and into green. I think this was one of Nick's eggs, but it might have been Star's. They're old hands at this technique, and this year their little daughter Elza got to play with Paas dyes. (I totally forgot to photograph those eggs. In fact, I'd say I only photographed a tiny portion of the eggs that were decorated that day.)




Moving from green into blue. I don't remember who made this one. Maybe Cookie?




Nick's blue whales. Again, I just love the creativity that these little eggs inspire. Easter whales? Why not!



Here's the egg from the yellow photograph. I don't remember whose hands these are. Please speak up if I featured your eggs! This one, and the next are among the more traditional designs.




Here we are, getting fancy with photography. I've cheated, by placing the decorated egg (which actually is one of Taylor's) on top of one of the teaching books. There's a blue egg in the background that seems to be the inspiration for this particular design.




The egg on the left looks like a fanciful garden, and the one on the right is one of my favorite types: a Scribble Egg. I think Mark accidentally dripped wax on the table and used the molten drippings to create a design. I love this! Serious chaos, creating a wonderful design. (Whoops! Not Mark and Katie's eggs. These are by Barbara and her friend whole name I was too sick to learn. Now I'm wondering how many others I mis-attributed. Duhhhhh...)




On the other end of the spectrum are these two beauties. In truth, the wax resist technique is rather tricky, and I'm always delighted when new learners take to this technique like the proverbial fish takes to water.




Shifting into the violent end of the rainbow. The egg in the front of the carton hasn't had the wax melted off yet.




And heading back into red again. I think these were John's, because I know that Margot drew all over the table-covering paper with her wax stylus. I encourage people to do this, as a way of getting used to the way the wax drawing tools behave. As a former scenic painting fellow, and current freelance member of the studio, Margot has re-papered these work tables any number of times. So she was fearless in using the paper as a drawing surface. One of the nice things about hosting the party at the scenic painting studio is the fact that it just doesn't matter if someone makes a bit of a mess. It's a paint studio, and we're set up to deal with spills.

We're well-prepared for small fires, too. But nevermind that.



So, that's our jaunt through the rainbow. Of course, some of the eggs defy categorization. I think this one was Amy's. Another experienced egg-dyer.




This one was George's. He's never done this before, and was undaunted by the technique. George keeps chickens, so perhaps he'll try this again.




I believe these were made by Karen and her friends. Nice work, y'all! I hope to see everyone again, next year!