Tools of the Trade

Seeing as I have been blipping at length about the decorated Easter eggs I thought I better put up some photographic evidence of how they were made. Just incase anybody thought I had hand cut out all the details of peacock feathers or pink giraffe print the photo shows the sheets of patterned tissue paper that you can buy off the shelf. There are some beautiful designs, last year I had some largish butterflies on a yellow background but I couldn't find that paper this year. (My girls have never forgiven me for giving those eggs away.) Anyway, the company that makes them can be found at www.decopatch.com


To start I blew the eggs, it works with hen eggs but the duck eggs have a thicker shell and are tougher. You just have to make a hole in each end and blow out the contents, which can be used for baking or scrambled eggs or omlette. Then I cut wire, twisted it into a loop and taped it onto the eggs. They were then ready to go with glueing on the paper. It is better to rip it into small pieces. Last year I used PVA glue but this year I bought the decopatch glue and it is better, more like a varnish. Then you leave them to dry, tie on a ribbon, get a bit of a branch from the garden and hang them up all over the place.