Oeuf Couture: How to Dress an Easter Egg

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Jeffery Rudell, contributor

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This Easter I'm keeping all of my eggs "au natural" but wrapping them in as much color as I can muster.

Jeff Rudell

Narrow strips of paper, in bright springtime hues, are woven using a traditional chair-caning pattern.

Jeff Rudell

Less of a "dye-job" than a "makeover": Dare I call it "Oeuf Couture"?

Jeff Rudell

This Easter I'm keeping all of my eggs "au natural" but wrapping them in as much color as I can muster.

Photo: Jeff Rudell

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I feel certain I am committing a "craft crime" of some sort when I say this, but I prefer my Easter eggs white, brown, or blue; any hue they wear in nature is good enough for me. Why this should be is anyone's guess. I don't, as a rule, prefer neutral tones and I am not wedded to pastels. As readers of this post know, I am not afraid of color either—and strong color at that—so why this contrary position when it comes to Easter decorations?

I can offer only a feeble defense: nostalgia. Growing up on a small family farm, I have only pleasant memories of the daily trips to the chicken coop where my entrance would be heralded by the mildly indignant whispers of the hens. A pale collectlon of freshly laid eggs, in a basket, in the sunlight, is as close a snapshot of happiness as I can conjure. 

Mind you, in the past I have dyed my share of eggs. As a child I opted for bowls of garish Kool-Aid or Paas pellets (complete with that flimsy, wire egg holder). As an adult I tried dying eggs using vegetable skins and grains. I have painted eggs, and rubber-stamped eggs, and applied stickers to eggs, and used markers and crayons and pencils on eggs. I've wrapped them in fabric and origami papers and even tried my hand at traditional Ukranian decorating techniques. But, invariably, my preference remains for the plain old eggs in their natural-colored shells.

Unadorned eggs may be fine for me, but as an uncle of five, I have obligations that extend beyond my own preferences. So this year, I have decided to keep the eggs white but wrap each one in as colorful a paper container as I can create. The process, I'm finding, can be time consuming, so I'm getting an early start on the three dozen eggs I have patiently blown, washed, and dried. Here are my first few efforts for your amusement and, for the more patient among my readers, I have included a tutorial on how to create a modern, single-egg egg basket of your own.

I invite all my readers to share an idea of their own by posting a picture of one of their egg designs in the gallery. Your creation need not be an egg "container" like mine, but could be any egg adornment you please—including the traditional dyed variety. My hope is that seeing all of the member contributions will inspire in my efforts to work my way through the remaining 32 designs I have yet to make.

Thank you in advance to anyone able to participate. If you can't share a photo, please leave me a comment and let me know your favorite way of decorating for this holiday. My very best ideas come directly from the CraftStylish members, so I'm counting on you for help here.

(Check out part 2 of this post here.)

Begin with 1/8-inch strips of brighly colored paper 9 inches long. I used Color-Aid, which is a gouache-paint paper, so you will notice it flakes off a bit around the edges. The pattern for this traditional caning pattern can be found here.

Once you have gotten the vertical and horizontal weave in place, begin adding the left-slanting strips (fuchsia, in my example). A final, right-slanting strip (bright green) was added next to complete the design (green strip not shown in this photo).

Once the weave is complete, apply a generous amount of white glue to the reverse side to adhere ALL of the pieces in place and prevent them from "unraveling" in the following steps.

When the glue is dry, begin forming your container. My finished piece was 1-7/8 inches x 2-3/4 inches (plenty large enough for an extra-large egg). Score each crease before folding it against a straightedge.

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How to Decorate Easter Eggs Ukrainian Style!  

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Comments (4)

jscott56 writes: WOW!!! These are very neat and are something I want to learn to. What a true inspiration!!!
Posted: 12:16 am on August 21st

AWilcox writes: What a great way to decorate the Easter Egg! I have nieces who love decorating for any holiday, and during Easter they make a mess with food coloring. This year I am going to present your idea to them, I am sure they will love it as much as I do, thanks for your innovative creations.
Posted: 4:51 pm on March 16th

hemidemisemiquaver writes: ooooh....I am a postin'! I have a beautiful project I did at Christmas for naturl egg shell ornaments, as well as an eggshell garden! I will post both in the same post!
Posted: 3:10 pm on March 16th

LauraMM writes: I LOVE your work! Your paper creations are amazing works of art! And I love how you left the eggs natural... I have 3 children, so we are into dying eggs, coloring, and so on.... Pre-kids, I'd paint the eggs and then heat emboss some designs with embossing powder... But now I'm off to purchase brown eggs, and I'd like to arrange some naturally with decorated vessels or baskets... thanks for the inspiration!
Posted: 10:36 am on March 16th

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