Finding eggs in your area: The best way to find farm eggs in your area is to go to an indoor or out door farmers market. As some have posted, checking the yellow pages of the phone book for local farms,local sales papers, and lists such as Craigslist, are other smart ways to find farms or shells in your area. Many times a ride in the country on a Sunday afternoon will yield signs that say fresh eggs and produce for sale For those not so lucky, please remember, commercial hatcheries are now using a fine mist of vegetable oil to give the egg a longer shelf life. Many that have used eggs from the grocery store have gotten eggs that will not take color or will have circular bands on the shell when dyed, the bands are caused by the resting ring when the eggs are washed at the plant. To help get rid of these problems here is a tip for you new members. Get a large clear glass bowl, and fill it with water. Place a few eggs in the bowl, watch for a bubble line, this will indicate a crack. Bad egg. Make a paste of plain baking soda, and give the egg a good scrub with this.By doing this you should get rid of any oil on the shell. DO NOT USE THE GREEN SCRUBBING PADS. They will put micro scratches on the shell. Dip the egg in full strength white vinegar and then pat dry, your egg should be ready to use. NEVER SAND A SHELL other than ostrich or rhea. By sanding chicken or goose eggs you will get a soft spot, that will take dye differently. Use these eggs for practice, or if you do drop-pull you may sand them , and then spray paint them to get an over all finish to do leave on drop pull designs. Duck eggs NEVER USE ANYTHING BUT WATER TO CLEAN DUCK EGG SHELLS. If you disturb the cuticle (natural top layer) your dyes will not take strong colors on the shell. You must always use a natural progression of dyes on duck eggs. If there are stains from mud or duck dirt after cleaning, do not worry, just proceed with your work, when finished, the stains will not show as much. If you are buying commercially cleaned shells, some things to remember. Always use a Pysanky Plug to block the hole and clean the shells with a paste of baking soda, scrub around the plug with a childs soft tooth brush, rinse and dip the egg in white vinegar. The spots on eggs such as turkey and quail, will lift in the dyeing process, so it is good to pre clean the spots off. Remember white quail eggs have white spots on them! Commercially cleaned eggs are cleaned in such large amounts, that often some albumin will still be around the opening. Cleaning will remove this. Also folks will come across an egg stash another artist is getting rid of. Old shells will often take color fantastic. Never jump into working on a shell until you have tested them so see how they take color. Shells that have been cleaned for other crafts are often cleaned with acid or bleach, these two products will hamper the shell taking color. It is always important to ask questions when you find a treasure. Remember eggs that are found in the wild are protected, so before collecting any wild eggs check with your local Game Commissioner first. Hope these tips help, anyone else is welcome to add to this list. Jim/PysankyUSA
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 01:33:35 +0000
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