This weekend, artistry will abound as countless adults and children decorate eggs in recognition of the Easter holiday. But decorative eggs are about more than a supermarket kit with shockingly bright colouring tablets. This week’s links take a look at some of the more egg-celent artwork out there, both created by nature and by people.
It’s hard to match the beautifully decorated East European Easter eggs, but although the procedure is complicated, It’s not completely inaccessible to the uninitiated. This excellent video tutorial explains how to make Ukrainian pysanky and describes the history and symbolism of the craft.
If you want to go the traditional dyeing route, but aren’t a fan of using artificial colouring, try a more natural solution. Kiwi magazine describes how to use berries, vegetables, and spices to make food-based dyes.
You can also let nature take care of the colouring job and enjoy the many variations in egg color and appearance that occur among different species of birds. This 2010 article, from LiveScience, explains the origins of some of the patterns?and suggests that there’s much more that doesn’t meet the (human) eye.
Exotic eggs aren’t just pretty to look at, they give us important clues to the past (and, by extension, the present and future). This 1996 interactive feature by National Geographic allows users to explore the finding, collection, and interpretation of fossilized dinosaur eggs.