3 Less Frustrating Ways to Dye Blown Eggs

So as many people have mentioned, dying blown eggs is a bit of a pain. But we really prefer blown eggs over hardboiled, so we've soldiered on over the years.

The problems are many. For one, they float. For two, they take in a lot of liquid and slowly drip it out as they're drying. I have tried various methods to remedy this, some have worked better than others, but frankly none of them are both perfect and easy. So here's another post in which I give you a bunch of options, including the pros and cons of each approach.

This is definitely a case when putting more effort will yield better results. I suggest you choose based on your level of patience.

Method 1- Dying the Egg before Blowing
Pros- Eggs will sink nicely in the dye bath. Doesn't require specialty tools, just wax. All of the eggshell gets dyed.
Cons- If you plan to use the egg innards, you'll need to use a food safe dye (not the dyes that come with the Ukranian kit). Can be a bit more messy. There's a risk that you may put a lot of effort into the dying process and then accidentally break the egg at the end. I wouldn't try this method until you feel confidant with your egg blowing skills.

For this method, you'll just dye raw eggs however you'd like. When you're done, dip the ends of the egg into melted wax (from a candle) or drip candle wax over the ends or, if you have one, use the kistka tool to apply the wax. Follow this tutorial to poke holes in the ends...


(Small end of the egg)


(Large end of the egg)

and carefully blow out the innards, doing your best to keep those innards off the undyed part of the eggshell. The wax will protect the dye at the ends. Melt the wax off in a 300 degree oven for about 5 minutes and then wipe clean with a paper towel (like here).

Method 2- Sealing the Holes with Wax, but Filling the Egg with Water First
Pros- Eggs will sink in the dye. You can eat the egg innards no matter what kind of dye you use. When emptying the dyed eggshell, it's easier to get water out than the egg innards.
Cons- Will leave a tiny bit of undyed shell near the holes. Is sort of difficult if you don't have the kistka tool. The entire process is somewhat tedious and may make you feel a bit anal retentive.

For this, you'll want to start with already blown eggs. Using the kistka tool, cover the smallest hole with wax. It works best if the tool is really hot (as the wax will come out much easier). You'll want to first make a circle outside the hole.


(All I have are pictures of sealing up the larger hole. Pretend these pictures are of the smaller one.)

Let the wax cool and patiently, like, really patiently, fill in the hole, bit by bit. This process may feel really frustrating at first, but it gets better, probably not more than about a minute each.



Needless to say, the smaller the hole, the easier this will be. In fact, you might be able to pull off this trick that I show in the video below.



Now, flip the egg over and hold the bigger hole under a thin stream of water filling the egg almost full with warm (not hot) water. (I suggest using warm because if you use cold water, as you work with the egg the water will heat up and expand very slightly, which will increase the pressure inside the egg and force some of it out the holes.)



Dry the top of the egg and seal it up with more wax.

Dye as usual.

When you're done, add a bit more wax around the biggest hole to protect the dye like in Method 1. Holding the egg over a bowl or the sink, first pick off the bottom wax and then the top bit of wax and allow all the water to spill out.





You may need to use the egg blowing tool to get the last bit of water out. Melt the rest of the wax off like described here.

Method 3- Sealing the Holes with Wax
Pros- Keeps liquid from getting inside of the egg making the process much less messy because it won't drip. Doesn't involve emptying the egg after it's been dyed.
Cons- Like Method 2, it will leave a tiny bit of undyed eggshell near the holes. It's sort of difficult if you don't have the kistka tool. The eggs still float in the dye so you'll need to spin them or hold them under the dye with a spoon. (I'd say this method is best suited for quick working dyes like the kind specifically for Ukranian decorating.)



Basically, blow the eggs like normal, let them dry and then cover over the holes with a bit of wax like described in Method 2. Or alternately, you can very carefully drip melted wax from a burning candle onto the hole. Dye as you please and then melt off the wax in the oven like so.

OK, so that's it. Information overload? If this is all too much to take in, just carry on like you never read this post. I'm sure however you dye eggs is just fine.

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Hanging Blown Eggs

Once your beautiful eggs are all dry, there are quite a few ways to get them ready to hang.

(This year I didn't cut any live branches, so I pulled out my necklace tree for a decoration, as I sometimes do.)



Personally, some of my favorite materials to hang them with are plain ol' ribbon, embroidery floss and even the silk ribbon that's used for embroidery, which I would say I have a plethora of.



As for how to actually attach it to the egg... well, the method I most often use involves buttons, because I love buttons, especially fun vintage buttons.





You can do it one of two ways. First of all thread the floss (or ribbon) through the button like so.



And then you can either simply glue the button to the top of the egg (my preference is for hot glue because it sets so quickly).



Or, once you've run it through the button, you can thread the ribbon up through the bottom of the egg and out the top. This will hold it in place with no need for glue at all. But it does require you to thread it through the egg, which can be tricky.

I've found a piece of floral wire to be incredibly helpful for this process, especially if either of the holes is particularly small. Note- I just realized that if you don't have this wire, you can straighten out the little egg dipper that comes with most egg dying kits. It's about the same gauge and length as what I used.

Just glue the ribbon to one end of the wire with hot glue (it works brilliantly for this as you can peel it right off).



Poke the wire up through the egg and pull the ribbon out the other end.



When you pull the ribbon taut, the button will hold everything in place.



Now here's the part of the post where I deliver on my crafty geek promise from last week. This idea pleases the OCD parts of my personality to no end.

I'm talking metal embellishments, people.

Either the silver or bronze, industrial grommets or the cutsie, painted, scrapbook eyelets. Snaps also came in handy (both functional and scrapbooky).



With these I was able to replace a jaggedy hole with such cuteness I thought my eyes might melt. OK, so it's not really all *that* cute, but it is damn satisfying.

I dare you to tell me it's not.



You may have to expand the hole just a bit to fit these down in there. You can use a pin to do it, but a dremel tool works wonders.

And check out this before and after. (Jeff did the one on the left and Joey did the one on the right. Aren't they fab?)





I used the solid little guys (snaps, it says on the packet) to plug up the bottom holes. For some eggs, I just glued it right in there.



And for others, I threaded it up from the bottom like I did with the buttons above.

This time, because the top hole was bigger, I just bent the floral wire to hook it around the loop of embroidery floss (which I'd already glued to the snap).



Then I pulled it through the egg and the snap held it firm.



After that, I slid one of the eyelets down over the floss at the top and glued it in place.





I have to admit, this last picture satisfies me to my very core.

Now, I didn't include all of these methods and materials to imply that you need to go out and buy a bunch of stuff. I took all these pictures to show you how many options you have. My guess is that a lot of you crafty types probably already have enough of these to start hanging eggs now.

You know, if you want.

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Related Posts-
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Less Frustrating Ways to Dye Blown Eggs

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Jaden, Kam & Joey

For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.

-Carl Sagan

Egg Drying Rack

Have you ever actually tried using the drying racks that you get from punching out holes from the box of Easter egg dye?

Miserable things, those are.

Instead we use a piece of styrofoam and just stab a bunch of toothpicks into it at regular intervals (a bit less than an inch). We reuse it year after year, which is why it looks like this. At the end of egg-dying season, I pull out all the toothpicks and store them in a baggie taped to the base.



This setup is sturdy enough to hold both hard-boiled and blown eggs with no problems at all. Just make sure that after dying any blown eggs, you put them with one of the holes facing down to allow any extra dye to drip out. You can cut down on mess if you drain excess liquid into the sink before placing the eggs on the drying rack, but they'll still drip a bit.



Using this drying rack tends to cut down on the 'wet spot' that HRH Gigi mentioned because the eggs aren't sitting in a pool of liquid. All you need to do is just touch the drip with a clean rag or paper towel to absorb the liquid.



Now I must confess that Easter (like Halloween) is one of the holidays that I get really craft geeky about. Next week I'll have posts describing how I hang the eggs (with a fun new trick that I just figured out this year) as well as some unusual designs that we've been working on.

Be sure to stop by if you're interested. Or stay far away if you're not.

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Related Posts-
Easter Prep (for Blown Eggs)

Less Frustrating Ways to Dye Blown Eggs

Ukrainian Egg Dying

Hanging Blown Eggs

Indoor Easter Garden

Bed Head Halo

When my nephew Kam spends the night at our house, this is how he emerges from Joey's bedroom. Every. Single. Morning.

I love how the morning sun lights up his hair like this.



And this one was from a bit later as I let him play with my camera. He was very specific about what face I should be making for the pictures he had planned.

Sadly, I failed to meet his expectations.



Note- I want to shout out a huge apology to anyone who has commented in the last couple of weeks. Apparently I'd changed an important setting and all comments needed my approval. And with more disastrous results, I also managed to turn off the email notifications that I had comments pending. So all your wonderful words have been sitting in comment limbo for the last 2 weeks or so. You think I would have suspected something and started poking around blogger, but I just assumed that no one loved me anymore. It took a friend living in France to point out my ridiculousness. Thank you much, Karin! And thanks to the rest of you for still continuing the conversation, even if I was temporarily mute to it.