The internet is a great source of inspiration for me, as is for anyone, of course. Yet, inspiration can be found anywhere. Nature—God’s gift to us—is beautiful and therefore ever inspirational. Especially now, with the short and dark days gone, shrubs bursting with new life, the air gentler than long and smelling like spring, I myself feel like I am waking up from an hibernation.
(c) 2014 by hs
Visiting a local easter market, I found myself inspired to haul out my easter decorations and prepare my flat for the upcoming holidays. Every year, my mom buys me an easter egg, bearing the year date.
(c) 2014 by hs
To purfle eggs like this has a very long tradition. The ornaments are old, as is the technique. I know of two techniques coming to the same result. One is to dye the egg and then to scrape off the colour again with a very sharp knife. My eggs, however, are done the other way round: the ornaments are brought on in form of melted wax, then dyed in cold colour, and after that, the wax is melted away so that the eggshell is visible where the wax has been.
Every one of my sixteen eggs so far, has a little verse or saying which the 86 year old lady who makes these works of art writes in old German letters. Fortunately, my grandmother taught me to read these characters as a child. But the lovely old lady always reads the inscription out aloud for me when we buy the egg. They are not blown, by the way, but raw and heavy. One would think they would begin to smell but they do not, of course. They dry very, very slowly over the years until they get as light as a blown egg at last.
Lately, I saw a knitted egg cosy on the internet and tried my version of it. What a cute little easter present this will make.
(c) 2014 by hs
Password: Quilt 
These are beautiful, Heike, and it is fascinating to read about how they are made. I hope you don’t mind, but I have used one of your pictures in my blog post today – I found it on Pinterest and have linked it back to you in my post. If you DO mind, I will gladly remove it. Many thanks. xCathy
hi cathy! no, i dont mind at all. on the contrary: i am glad you liked it so much that you linked it in your own post. you have a marvelously cute site and i definitely will come back and read it regularly. your creations are beautiful!
Actually, there are three methods to do these beautiful eggs:
– the wax reserve technique
– the scratching method
– dyeing the egg and then “writing” on it with an acid
The last method is rarely used these days, but the brown egg in the front of your picture with the little poem in “Kurrentschrift” (don’t know the english name for this) looks like it might be one of these.
thx fussel for adding this 3rd technique. my eggs were all done in the wax technique by a lovely old lady who is still wearing the traditional costume of her home region