"Redware" Eggs

Inspired by a couple of photos of some painted "redware" eggs (~here~ and ~here~), I decided to paint a batch for myself. 

Of course, I had the project on my to-do list all last week but never got around to doing it...until Saturday when I had a gazillion other things on my list. Ron and I had been out for breakfast, Kati was called in to work early, Ron left to cut firewood, and Bekah and I were left to clean the entire house, catch up on the laundry, make dessert for Sunday afternoon, and make dinner before we left for a ladies' game party at my daughter's house. Perfect time to start a project, right? 

(That's how procrastinators do things, you know.) 

So I gathered a few supplies: a package of plastic dyeable eggs, some brushes, and various and sundry acrylic paints in my stash.

I did not have the colors I needed, but this was a last minute project and we were short on time so no trip to the store. Instead, I squeezed a little barn red on a paper plate and stirred in a bit of brown to make a rusty red. Then I blended some yellow into a blob of taupe to get the muted yellow I needed. 

I was hoping that the dyeable eggs were porous enough to absorb the acrylics, but, alas, they were not. Time for Plan B. 

Off to the attic I went to retrieve some wooden eggs. Year ago, I had painted these wooden ones blue and then dappled them with white to create a spongeware look. Ryan had suggested that they looked like denim and after that I could see nothing else, so I never used them. I had nothing to lose by painting over them! 

The "denim" eggs required two coats of the rusty red paint. (Thankfully, acrylics dry quickly!) 

Then, while looking at online images of redware pottery for inspiration, I used the yellow to paint some typical designs on the eggs. 

After they were dry, I began to apply a coat of wax, but the wax started to remove some of the paint. Ack! No time to repaint! Plan B Plan C to the rescue! I rubbed a little Old English furniture polish over each egg to protect the paint and add a little luster.

My work is certainly not professional. I should have thinned the paint a bit, and my detail brush could have been narrower. But I am pleased with the overall look. It is good enough. 

About that to-do list? 

The house was cleaned. The laundry was washed and dried but not folded. Dinner was prepared by Chick-fil-A instead of me. Dessert baking was postponed to Sunday morning. 

But I had a cute bowl of eggs on my kitchen table when our church fellowship met here on Sunday morning!

(Because that's how procrastinators do things, you know.)