Image from Vintage Printable
Dyeing eggs was never supposed to be tortuous. But for a stylist, there are different rules. The eggs should be perfect, the colors uniform, and you need to dye 120 of them, or so, for a photo shoot that might feature a dozen of them in the end. Oh, and you'll need to prepare them over the New Year holiday, transport them from point A to B to C without breakage, and make sure they don't rot before the shoot (but don't refrigerate them, because then the colors might start to run). It's a lot of pressure. Or at least it used to be.
About five years ago, I was on a trip and stopped at one of the many roadside Cracker Barrel stores. After appreciating their fine facilities, I wandered around the store a bit. And there they were, the most realistic fake eggs I have ever seen. I promptly bought a couple dozen and took them home to experiment with. It didn't take long to realize that they were the answer to my prayers.
You can't dye them, but you can paint them with watered down acrylic craft paint and a damp piece of natural sponge (you just hold them between two fingers and dab at them with the sponge, rotating as you go When the paint dries, go over any uneven spots). They dry almost immediately and absorb the paint evenly. You can glitter them, wrap them, stencil them, you name it. Since then, those eggs have made their way onto covers and in the pages of magazines (just like all of the eggs in yesterday's post), with no one the wiser. They're so realistic looking that at one photo shoot, the art director didn't realize they were fakes even when he was holding one in his hand.
It's my little secret that makes photo shoots easier. But it's also a great find for general crafters. Who wants to spend hours designing beautiful little eggs, only to throw them in the garbage a week later? And I've blown out a lot of eggshells in my lifetime - that's no picnic, either. Now my secret's out. But please, don't buy so many that they sell out. I might need them again next year.
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