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You’ll need:

• White boiled eggs or uncooked eggs for decorating (not blown-out)

Diluted vinegar

Egg dyes (cold dyes)

Liquid wax, e.g. from a candle or tea light

Candle

Kitchen paper

Pin, bottle cork, or small wooden stick/pencil

Quill


How it’s done

1. First, clean the egg with diluted vinegar. Next, prepare your tools for applying the wax pattern. Suitable items for making the intricate pattern are, for example, pins or quills that have been trimmed as necessary. It’s easier to hold the pin if it is secured in a cork or small wooden stick. Then melt some wax, and you can start. A popular basic technique is called the wax reserve method.

2. Apply liquid wax using the pin or quill: small dots, lines, and triangles are arranged into circles and decorative motifs. Sorbian eggs traditionally have symmetrical designs. Give your imagination free rein! As wax sets quickly, work fluently and in small sections.

3. When the whole egg has been decorated with wax, place it in the prepared dye bath. Choose dyes for cold dyeing or a cooled dye stock made from natural materials otherwise the wax will melt and your work of art will dissolve.

4. When the required shade has been achieved, take the egg out of the dye bath with a spoon and dry carefully.

5. Uncooked eggs should now be blown out before melting the wax off. Carefully bore a hole into the eggshell and then use, for example, the HEITMANN Blow-out kit, a pumping and cleaning device to empty Easter eggs quickly and hygienically.

6. Now remove the wax from the egg. Melt the wax by warming the egg over a candle, for example. Dab the liquid wax with a piece of kitchen paper, melting all the wax off, a bit at a time. A beautiful white decoration will appear on the dyed egg.

If you’re a bit more experienced, after dyeing you can add another design with wax and dye again with a different colour. This produces a two-coloured design after the wax is removed.