HOW TO: Easter egg lettering.

The Church teaches that the egg is seen as a symbol of Resurrection of Jesus or as emblem of new life. So it is no coincidence that for many families, painting Easter eggs is a classic Easter tradition.

These eggs are typically hard-boiled and then decorated. This is the best way if you have children: lot of fun and potentially messy! They love this activity!

Unfortunately cooked Easter eggs and consequently the impressive work created on them, last about a week.

Why don’t freshen up the old traditional way of decorating Easter eggs, paint them with modern patterns or hand lettered messages and keep the eggs indefinitely?

Since I love lettering, I thought that would be a fun way to decorate the eggs for this Easter. So, let's start!

WHAT YOU NEED:

- Eggs

- Soft pencil and eraser

- Nib, black and white calligraphy ink or pigment ink pen

INSTRUCTIONS:

First you’ll need to empty and clean your eggs. (And save the content for breakfast!)

There are tons of tutorials on how to blow out eggs. Just have a look at this Google search and you will discover you can empty an egg with a syringe, a nasal aspirator, a bulb ear syringe…

I use the oldest of methods: a thin drinking straw (I used those of juice in brick).

You will need: toothpick, bowl, drinking straw, drawing pin (or a mini drill).

1. Pierce the shell at both ends of your egg with a drawing pin. (I used a mini drill and carefully drilled a hole in the top and bottom of the egg. This solution makes the work faster and perfect).
2. Use a toothpick into one of the holes in the egg, and break membrane and the yolk while it is still inside.
3. Place a straw over the hole. Blow through the straw until the content of the egg is empetied into the bowl.
4. Rinse your blown out eggs in soapy warm water and let them dry in an empty egg carton.

Once your eggs were drilled, blown and drained you can move onto the lettering/doodling part.

Prepare a workspace and plan what you want to draw. I chose a mix of doodling and lettering with Italian Easter messages.

It is always a good idea to make sketch of your creation, before deciding on the final design; and when you are ready on your idea, you can decide to paint the eggs free-hand or lightly draw a pattern with pencil. This way you are more sure of your strokes.

Start tracing lines to map out the size of your word, to get the proportions right. Then go over the lines with a slower, more refined single stroke, erase if you need.

Once your sketching is complete, use those sketch lines as a guide. Go over the lines, with the ink pen or the nib+ink and make the letter nice and bold.
You can also decorate the eggs with lines and doodles. Just for an example, you can start with simple guide lines and then fill in your egg part with lines, points, hatching, strokes and abstract graphic design. Funny not?

Ready to decorate your home for Easter? Take a big apothecary jar, put some moss or feathers on the bottom, add your eggs and voilà you have created a perfect home decor. 

TIPS:

- Handle the eggs as little as possible because the ink doesn’t adhere to the egg’s surface where there is natural oily residue from your hands.

- For a cute centerpieces put some eggs in a faux birdnest made from twigs. This is a really inexpensive way to bring some Spring into the home!
- Want a chic Easter table without spending a cents? Place a painted easter egg on each table setting: little details matter but we don’t need to spend a lot of money to have an elegant table decorations.