23.3.10

Crack An Egg- Egg Shell Art




I love doing ‘farts and crafts’ with my monkeys. I especially love thinking of creative ways to use material that we already have. We compost, so our ‘scraps’ are well used including our eggshells. I remember doing this project when I was little with my mother “Queen of Creativity ”.
I have been saving eggshells since last week and rinse them until they don’t feel slimy, then leave them out to dry.
Seeking a natural way to dye the eggshells I tried using red tea and green tea.
After thirty minutes of boiling, the red tea eggshells took on a brown color and the green ones were white with a hint of green.

I added a few drops of green food coloring in with the green tea and came out with a light green. I took out the light brown eggshells and added a few drops of red food coloring, added more eggshells and boiled them for 30 minutes. These are my results.
For my next attempt I will strive to create more vibrant colors.

We put the eggshells into zip lock bags and took a rolling pin to it.
Because we were limited with the colors we had, we made a simple tree glue on construction paper project.
1. First we made an outline
2. We sprinkled the crushed eggshells

3. Shook them off
4. Made buds (repeat)

Questions to consider while creating:
What materials (medium) are we using to create?

What texture does this medium create? 

What sort of effect can you create with the raised and recessed areas? (Depth)

What types of art genres use recycled objects? (most commonly Assemblage but also Found Art, Junk Art and a fairly new term is Up-cycled Art) 
What textures are used? (Intrinsic to the properties of metal, paper, plastic etc.) 

25 comments:

erin said...

Very cute, great way to use those old egg shells.

Karumen said...

that's a great project! i was thinking of drawing faces on the eggs the other day too hehe...
on a side note, not sure if you hv the habit of bathing (as opposed to showering), u can pour some green tea powder (or green tea leaves in a cotton bag) n dump that into a tub of hot water. feels like spring (n gd for ur skin too i heard!)

Mała Mi said...

:) nie wiedziałam, że można tak kolorować jajka! Herbatą :) bardzo ciekawe!

/

:) i didn't know that! We can colour eggs with tea! It's very excinting :)

P.S. czy mój angielski jest zrozumiały? :P

Rita said...

hey! Traditionally in my area we dye eggs cooking them (for Easter)in dry brown onion peels:) we sometimes put the elastic bands on eggs to get stripes- it looks really nice- the colour is deeper if we add more peels and if we cook eggs longer (about 1h)
have fun there!
Just

Jacqui said...

Good idea - a different thing to do with eggs at this time of year is welcome. Our hens lay brown eggs, so not so easy to colour, but I have wrapped onion skins around eggs and hard boiled them for a marbled effect. xx

essbesee said...

you are so damn crafty. how cool. and I will totally start using farts and crafts. my boys will love that.

M said...

Oh wow! What a great and unusual way to create! I love it! I'm glad to discover your blog! So very inspiring!

Lovely World said...

You are ambitious! I like the earthy colors, but that is just me. Sometimes I think I need to brighten up.

cpcable said...

Very cool. I love it!

Ren- Lady Of The Arts said...

Erin- thanks for commenting it was a fun activity.
Karumen-what a great tip- I will try it.
malami- I grew up dying the eggs at my Polish grandmothers in onions so I wanted to try another natural way.
Just- I remember the onion well- Babcia would make hundreds for all of us to put in our baskets to bless.
Jacqui- the marbled effect, I like that idea.
Sherri- Farts and Crafts goes a long way in this house- they think it is HIGHlarious.
M comme Maman- I am glad to have found yours as well! Thanks for commenting.
Lovely- I agree, I like the light colors- I just think the monkeys would love to create with vibrant colors.

Unknown said...

well, look at that! great craft!
when i was a kiddo, i learned how to take an egg, poke a hole in either end, blow the yolk out, dry it and dye it hole. then, you can pull a string through the holes and hang it. now that i am thinking of it, it's a wonder i didn't get salmonella, even though you really don't touch the yolk. ick.

essbesee said...

I promise never to call you lady of the farts. ooops, I just did. And I have the sense of humor of a ten-year old boy.

Mary Bergfeld said...

What a clever way to color eggs. This looks like a really great project. Time willing I'll give these a try. Have a great day...Mary

Ren- Lady Of The Arts said...

Cpcable- Thank you
Trevor- welcome! I have seen people do what you are describing. In our house we're more of a crush it family.
Sherri- I am not telling my monkeys that one.

Patty-Jean from LittleQuiver said...

I love this - great idea! nice to meet you too! Always a pleasure to meet creative mamas!

Rita said...

so you grew up having traditional Polish babcia by your side :) it's so wonderful to have contact with more than one language in everyday life!I wish I had such opportunity, unfortunately I had to learn English and German at school;]but my children...I have big plans to speak with them in two languages (or more if I manage;))

Clair said...

What a fun way to use up egg shells.
Clair

Adele said...

That's such a creative idea! I will have to try it with mine... do you think 2 is too young? Do you speak Polish? I noticed a Polish comment up there!

Ally said...

I spit my water out at "farts and crafts" -- that's awesome! Love it! Totally my humor! Great idea with the eggs though! Awesome!

Tales Of A Fourth Grade Nothing

Ren- Lady Of The Arts said...

Mary- they are super easy to multitask
Patty-J: Welcome. Love your blog too!
dotblog: I speak four languages fluently- Polish I probably use the least but my father was born there and I have visited a few times.
Clair- always a pleasure having you stop by and comment- thank you
Adele- Two is not too young- crushing eggshells can be done by anyone! I do speak Polish and a few other languages-
Ally- I can't take credit for Farts and Crafts that is what my monkeys call it-

Dean Grey said...

Lady Ren!

Fantastic idea!

I never would've thought of saving old egg shells for art projects!

Dying the eggshells in a combination of tea mixed with food coloring is brilliant too!

-Dean

 Mommy Drinks Style said...

Maybe calling it Farts and Crafts will actually get my boys to do some stuff like this with me! What a great idea!
I was actually considering trying the old pin in the eggshell and blowing it out.. but I imagined this huge mess all over the place, and backed out.

Bem said...

this is a great project for the kiddos. i wanna try making it with my little ones. thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

You have way too many creative ideas! I adore this. You make me feel like a slacker mother :)

Grażka said...

Wow, great idea! We colour eggs with onion:)

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