From My Little Hole in the Wall: The Easter Egg

I woke up this morning to a wonderful treat! April showers. It's been very windy this last week, and a cold front rolled in and gave us a little relief from the dry conditions. Where I live, spring sprang a month ago. My husband has been mowing down all those precious little purple flowers in the field grass that he calls weeds. I've stopped grumbling about it, in secret, hoping this bit of rain will bring them back with a vengeance. We also get tiny groupings of blue flower "weeds" in the front yard each spring and I dare not bring any attention to them.

Time passes so quickly. I guess I've been on the Bunny Path for three weeks now. For some reason, as I was dressing a few of my dolls in spring clothing, I began thinking about Easter eggs and the possibilities associated with needle felting them. And as a Pinterest enthusiast, I began seeing lots of those peep eggs that I had in my basket as a child. Peep eggs? Well, this is what we called them. Today the population of fine bakers and cake decorators call them "panoramic eggs".

My earliest memories of Easter were shopping downtown where my mother would always make a stop at See's Candies. Each Easter season we would go with her, my brother, sister and I, and at least I would look forward to selecting the sugar peep egg that would go into my basket. While I loved the wonderful candies inside my basket, I treasured the peep egg for its tiny world inside the window. I never ate them, but as they're made of sugar, I suppose some people may have. I guess, eventually, these eggs got tossed, and as I grew up, the baskets stopped, and I never saw the peep eggs again. This year I discovered that tons of baked goods decorators have been making them and lavishly embellishing them for years now. Maybe it has to do with nouveau novelty, or the zillions of decorating tips you can purchase for royal icing. Regardless, I had to buy some. Of course. So yes, I've been decorating around the house for three weeks now.

One little novelty I found was a countdown to Easter calendar. The Vermont Christmas Store carries them in three versions. One is of Peter Rabbit with eggs around the edges, and then there's this one with bunnies, flowers, eggs and garden critters. I bought both. The other one was definitely targeted for children of today.

And I purchased three papier mache eggs from 32 degrees North. Papier mache eggs are not new to me. I'd collect them, display them in a basket each Easter, then over the years, lose them or give them away. This image of three are not my own, but a lovely sampling. I also went a bit nuts and bought three Hansa animal reproductions. A chick, a lamb and a baby duck. I didn't know anything about these decorative toys, but fell immediately in love with them when I saw an ad for a chick on an FAO Schwarz post.

As I was beginning to decorate and find more items to add to my Easter display table, I was purchasing more wool sheets from The Felt Pod. I recalled that they sold pre-felted eggs to decorate, so I purchased some after seeing what others have done. When they arrrived, they were about 2 1/4" on the average, so true chicken egg sized. I don't know what I was expecting, but the felters that generally needle felt eggs with beautiful designs, make their own egg shapes and they are considerably larger. Never one to turn away a challenge, I started perusing illustrations by Eulalie for inspiration.

So where did the idea of the Easter egg come from? There have been stories written about the Easter bunny, but what of the brightly decorated eggs he carries with him from field to pasture, hiding them for children to find?

The egg itself has for centuries been one of the most important and adaptable symbols in myths and rituals across Europe and Asia. To the Christians, the egg symbolized new life and purity. The emergence of the chick from the egg represented the resurrection. The shape of the egg, symbolic of the stone that rolls away from the tomb. Early Christians stained eggs red to remember the blood of Christ shed at the crucifixion.

In more practical terms, the egg was a dietary staple of the rich and poor. As eggs were forbidden during the Lenten season, then allowed once again on Easter, they became a gift. Eggs have been bartered as a minor source of currency. As women were generally the ones to look after the eggs laid by the hens, it was a meager source of income for them.

The egg as a gift can be traced as far back as 1290 when

King Edward I purchased 450 eggs to be colored and detailed with gold leaf to be distributed among his royal entourage. Let us not forget the Faberge eggs of Russia. In 1885, Alexander III commissioned a fabulously expensive decorated Faberge egg as an Easter gift for his wife.

Before the Reformation, the Church blessed eggs as food after the Lenten prohibition, and this developed into the custom of hard-boiling and decorating eggs as presents for children.

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, egg-shaped toys were manufactured for Eastertide. The Victorians gave cardboard and satin covered eggs filled with chocolate and gifts.

Easter egg hunting began in the 1700's when German

immigrants brought their Osterhase tradition to Pennsylvania. The festive tradition quickly spread across the country and the traditional nests of eggs became baskets. Eventually the game became a treasure hunt and candy, coins and toys could be found.

When we were children, my mother hid our baskets in various places in the house. A closet, behind a chair, the pantry, anywhere one could be secreted away. Our small house did not have many hiding places and once the baskets were found, we were allowed one piece an hour before going to church. Personally, for myself, getting a new Easter outfit was pretty exciting as well. Since I was child in the 60s, there were shoes, a hat, purse and gloves as well.

It's funny, but I never credit any holiday above the glory of Christmas, yet I do enjoy Easter for springtime and the joyful imagery and decorations associated with it.

The first egg I tried needle felting was one of a dancing baby duckling. I worked from Eulalie's illustrations in both The Bumper Book and her Nursery Rhymes book. I was immediately encouraged to see how nicely a bit of blue wool could interpret into a sunny day with soft clouds.

I chose a little farmhouse to place on the horizon line, then needle felted the main character in the "foreground". On the backside of the egg, some kind of spring flower would do. Working this small, you can't get a lot of detail, which by nature I labor at, so I had to keep the designs as simple as possible. I call this watercolor in wool. The backside of the duckling shows a field of poppies.

The second egg I did was of the Easter bunny from The Bumper Book's story of the Easter bunny. I've loved the illustrations of this story in particular, since the artist created an Easter egg hunt illustration that is well known and beloved.

The Easter bunny was more difficult to do. Trying to create happy eyes and a joyful smile with just black wool was a challenge. When the needle is larger than the piece of wool you're working with, it gets tricky.

On the back of this egg, I felted a daffodil amidst tiny white "weeds". The clouds you see are simply the white wool of the egg. Artists call this drawing or painting in the negative space. The back of this egg may be my favorite of the egg areas I needle felted.

I was placing these eggs for display in small nursery planters filled with Easter basket grass. Of course, doing so, you'd lose seeing the bottom of the egg, but I guess a curious passerby could always lift it out to have a better look!

The last one in this style became Mary's lamb. I had this one last small nursery planter of Mother Goose. As I was looking through Eulalie's version of the book, I saw this adorable little lamb and decide he would do. In the book he was standing, but I couldn't get the entire image (with enough detail) on the egg, so I felted him sitting. He wears a pink ribbon around his neck and a small bell hangs from the ribbon for Mary to find him quickly.

The house I chose to felt on the horizon of this one was lovely in illustration, but very difficult to render in wool this small. Its there, but very much a background. Neither of these photos show the house as I have other images to share.

On the back of this one, I needle felted a couple of tulips. In the illustration, there was a row of tulips, daffodils and some sort of daisy in front of a fence.

I had a difficult time with this lamb. There were a lot of details I had to leave out and still produce an image of a sweet lamb. The last bit, the last touch was that of the eyelashes. Maybe one wee strand of wool was used for them. That was it! I wasn't going to do any more. Yet I had five more eggs in the bag. Then I had an idea.

The back side of Mary's Lamb in the Mother Goose nursery planter.

After all this fuss about purchasing very expensive bakery sugar peep eggs, I decided to try making one myself with one of the eggs I had left. Oh, I tried it early on by cutting one in half and trying to snip out felted wool, etc., but it was awful. So I made a Little Faux Peep.

I took one of the small peep eggs I bought and used it as my inspiration. Instead of digging out wool and trying to make a shell, I tried for the illusion of a peep window.

Knowing that the original was all sugar, candy, it was easier for me to not pay so much attention to detailing a scene, and just play. I've seen the results of felted "paintings in wool", like a needlepoint canvas, but none done on an egg. I think we all experiment to some degree.

This little chick sits in a grassy setting with a couple of flowers and one jellybean egg. To get the faux look of a peep window, I gently felted a smidgen of mixed wools of purple, blue and gray in the background to resemble the shadowed interior of the peep egg.

The back side and top side with faux royal icing flowers.

This year's collection of peep eggs.

The largest one cost me a pretty penny and the medium sized one on the back right was done by the same baker. These are HEAVY. Maybe she made the shells thick to support all the flowers on the top? I don't know. But these egg shell halves should be about 1/4" thick. People even make solid ones which must weigh two pounds!

The two eggs in the front are most like the ones I had as a child. My favorites. Oh, and they smell so good! So sweet. The only reason I bought the blue shelled one in the back middle, is because of the little lamb in it.

People get very creative with these eggs. Essentially, its 5 cups of sugar, 5 tsp of meringue powder, 6 tsp water. You can either press the sugar mess into a mold as a shell, or fill it, bake it 20 minutes, then scoop it out. Royal icing with decorative tips do the rest.

People fill them with plastic figurines, candy, paper images, and of course, royal icing figures. No, I'm not going to make them myself. I'd make a mess and give up. Acquiring all the tips would be expensive and learning how to make the icing flora is an art in itself.

There was even one person who used a cake mold of a teapot to make a sugar peep egg. But it's not a peep egg. Its just a sugar tea pot with a window. I attached a photo of this below. Everyone is always trying for something unique and different. After studying page after page of sugar eggs for days, I'm done looking. It hurts my eyes. To me, the real deal are the two small ones I mentioned earlier. The rest are just unique decorations. Any mold will do.

I like things in threes and fives, so I did one more peep egg. This one would have a little bunny in it and a carrot on top with the flowers.

Side view.

Back and top with carrot.

The other side.

I'm done crafting for a while. Like any new thing I try, if it interests me, I go at it full board until I burn out. I've reached that point. What nursery planters I have left are going to the Goodwill. I messed around with them as they intrigued me. I have a nice decoration to bring out next St. Patrick's Day. I have my Gingham dog that sits among my dolls. I may or may not keep the small nursery planters that hold the eggs I made. I have no room to store such things. Should I think about this before I launch into new ventures? Yes. I do it all the time, but I love to make things. I love to try new things. Its how I play and further my skills.

Since I began this journal posting, we had a thunderstorm with hail. It quickly passed and the sun came out in a clear sky with cumulous clouds. In a half hour the earth was dry from the wind. Spring!

Easter is next Sunday, and I'm going to sit back now and simply enjoy the decorations I put out, the dolls I dressed for spring. I bought way too much Easter candy this year and have been enjoying it for two weeks! In moderation of course. hahahaha What's next? A doll project. Which one? One of them!

Wishing you a wonderful Eastertide! With a little imagination, any window can be your own personal peep window into a unique world.

Love,

Melissa