Every year I say that we really need to prepare better, buying ties throughout the year, because even at $2-$3 a piece, it really adds up when you are buying several at once for several kids. This Monday it was the twins day to go shopping with me, so we went to the thrift shop to buy silk ties. I don't know why, but for whatever reason, the ties need to be 100% silk to work. I think last years selection was better, but we had lots of fun picking out a number of ties that we hoped would make good patterns on the eggs. As we were finishing up and I was nearing the end of my patience levels for picking ties with 6 year olds, I noticed a rack full of scarves. It occurred to me that I couldn't imagine any reason why a silk scarf would work any less well than a silk tie. Unfortunately, most of the scarves didn't seem to have lables on them indicating if they were silk or not. But we picked a pretty pink one that felt like silk to test out. The thrift shop people looked at us like we were nuts as we brought handfuls of ties up to purchase, so I evangelized them on the awesomeness of tie dying eggs.
There's no way to tell by looking at the ties ahead of time how they will come out on the eggs. Some that seem like they will be awesome are faded and boring. Others that don't seem like much are vibrant and exciting.
Next we dismantled the ties.
I have to confess I coerced several of my children into putting on shirts, but Jane was having none of it. So then we separated the colorful silk and the white lining inside the ties.
Next for the wrapping. We moved over to the carpet for this part as last year we broke several eggs as we tried to maneuver them around on the table. I cut egg sized pieces of silk from the ties so that you can get a few eggs out of each tie. I have found that if you wet the silk it makes it easier to wrap around the egg. Oh look, Jane acquiesced to the shirt!
The tutorial I read involves winding lots of string around the egg after you put the cloth on. When we did this we found it extremely awkward and difficult to manage. I think the main point is to make sure that your fabric is pressed firmly against the egg. For our method we wrap it tightly in a fabric pouch and twist the ends shut and secure them with a rubber band. As far as I can tell it works just as well.
Next you are supposed to wrap them in a white cotton of some sort. At the recommendation of the blog I linked above, we just use the inserts from the ties themselves and secured them with rubber bands.
I read somewhere last year that using a ceramic pot made for better color transfer, and when I experimented with it then, it really did seem to make a difference, so we used one of Josh's Le Creuset pots. Then we just followed our regular hard boiled egg recipe.
Unwrapping is the best part as you get to see how everything transferred.
We picked that last one solely for the butterfly print. The rest of the egg is kind of boring, but it was exciting that the butterflies transferred.
The scarf ended up having the most vibrant and exciting transfer! Not only that but scarves are significantly easier to use than ties as there is not so much dismantling involved. Next year I think we will do primarily scarves and maybe one or two ties if there are some particularly promising looking ones. I also suggested silk boxers, thinking of some of the fun prints they have on boxers. However, since we get these items from the thrift shop, Josh was quite hung up on the idea of wrapping our eggs in in material from another man's nethers....so I guess we'll skip the boxers.
I have lots of tie bits left, so when the kids go to bed tonight I'm going to try to get "creative" with mixing and matching.
I hope you all enjoy your Easter!
I've wondered how you did these eggs. Thank you for the explanation.
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