Paint With What Nature Gives

Christmas is coming, the shops are full of Christmas stuff, but with corona it is no fun at all. What do you do if you prefer to stay at home, do as little shopping as possible and you are isolated because you belong to the risk group? Right! make the Christmas decorations yourself. Because I choose pastels this decoration is also suitable for Easter!

Actually, our family never do much about Christmas, because every day is a party. Moreover, we don't like an excessive food feast, but a Christmas tree is fun. We prefer to see trees in the forest so our tree consists of a metal frame wrapped with some twigs. Last year I had already provided it with stars made of felt and this year I also wanted some other decoration.

I opted for dyed eggs. At Christmas they go into the Christmas tree with some lights and red ribbon and at Easter they go into the same tree, which then has yellow ribbon and extra branches. Multifunctional!

Eggs (I only had 5 left)

Pantyhose

Flowers and leaves, be careful not to use poisonous plants!

Alum

A pushpin, needle or Dremel with drill bits

A thin crochet hook

An old pan (this can no longer be used for food)

Varnish, mod podge or similar alternative

Some pieces of iron wire

Firm yarn

A thin needle longer than the egg

Brush

Scissors

Glass jar

Collect flowers and leaves. The result is difficult to predict in advance, it depends on what you use and where you live. I myself paint a lot with the cotton flower which gives it a beautiful bright yellow color, or the butterfly pea for blue or red bougainvillea which dyes pink. I also use fern leaves and guava leaves. I wanted to have pastel shades and from these colors I know you can get beautiful pastels. If you want dark shades, take onion peels from the red onion or leaves of the eucalyptus. Painting with leaf and flower, also known as ecoprinting and eco dye, is mainly about experimenting and wondering how it turns out every time.

Wash the eggs before processing.

If you want to keep painted eggs for a long time, the eggshell must be emptied. There are different ways for one is to make a somewhat large hole on the round side and let the egg drain, in this case also make a small hole in the top you need is later or you can suck them out with a syringe, make sure that there are also two holes in the egg so that you do not vacuum the egg. Another method is to blow or empty out using, for example, a thin crochet hook. If you choose this method, make two holes in the egg, a small hole on the pointed side and a slightly larger hole on the round side.You can choose to blow out or empty the egg with a little hook. If it doesn't work, make the holes slightly larger. I choose to empty the eggs with a crochet hook because I want to use the whole egg pulp for a cake. If you want to use the egg pulp put it directly in the fridge.

Work carefully, although the eggshell itself is quite sturdy, it can quickly break it around the hole. A hole made with a drill reduces the chance of this.

Wash the eggshells again as soon as they are empty. Gently run water into the eggs, shake and then blow empty repeat this a few times so that the inside is also clean.

Cut the pantyhose into pieces so that you can tie them into bags for the eggs. I made 10 bags (5 per leg) from a pair of pantyhose. Make a knot on the end of each piece. The remaining part should be big enough for the egg plus one more knot.

Now that the eggs are clean, they can be covered with flowers and leaves and put into the panty bags. This can be done in two ways and it is just what you prefer. The first way is to wrap the egg in flowers an leaves and then put it in a bag and tie it as tightly as possible. The leaves and flowers should sit firmly against the egg. The second method is to first place a leaf or flower on the bottom of the bag and place the egg on top and then put the leaves and flowers between the egg and the bag. Once this is done close in the same way as in method 1.

I would like to have pastel colors so I stick to this. If you want the colors to print deeper, clearer and therefore darker, wrap some extra yarn around the egg so that the leaves and flowers are pressed even better against the egg, but be careful not to tighten it otherwise the egg will break.

Boil some water and put it in a glass jar and add a tablespoon of alum. Close the jar and shake until the alum is dissolved.

Fill an old pan with water and add the alum solution. Put the bags with eggs in the pan and bring to the boil. Let this simmer for an hour.

After an hour, turn off the heat source and let it cool slightly and drain the water. I myself use an old asparagus pan for this, which has the advantage that it has a basket and that I can lift the eggs out. Let them cool down further until they are at a temperature that you can unpack.

Unpack the eggs one by one and let the result surprise you. Rinse the unpacked eggs one more time, drain and dry overnight.

Cut as many pieces of iron wire (gauge) of about 3 cm as there are eggs.

Cut the same amount of yarn with a length of approximately 35 cm.

Now tie one of the pieces of yarn around one of the pieces of iron wire and give the iron wire a twist so that the yarn can no longer slip off. Make sure that the eye that is formed in the iron wire is as small as possible so that you can put it through the hole in on the round side of the egg.

Bend both ends of the wire straight.

Thread both ends of the yarn through the long needle and pass the needle from the round side of the egg to the pointed side of the egg. This is some fiddling and patience work.

Pull the needle through and insert the iron wire into the egg. Remove the thread from the needle and place a knot at the desired height, you can now hang the egg. Put all the eggs this way.

To give the color more depth apply a layer of varnish, mod podge or other glue varnish. Hang the eggs to dry.

This instructable may seem like a lot of work but is not and is great fun to do with children on an afternoon.