Seeds, Tea and Herbs, Oh My! Making Textured Easter Eggs

Yesterday, my natural dye eggs were on TV, but SO WERE these textured eggs. Using a variety of "natural ingredients" I managed to decorate my blown out egg shells, and the eggs that cracked during the boiling process. I used a variety of dried ingredients to get different colors, textures and even patterns. 

I love the look and variety of textured Easter Eggs. To make mine, I simply painted my cracked and ugly hard boiled eggs with some Mod Podge, and then dusted them with seeds, tea, herbs etc... 

To be honest, I'm not sure I would eat a cracked Easter egg that was slathered in glue. I WANTED to try using beaten raw egg and pigment- like the old master painters used in Frescoes... but for this project, I was fine with a disposable, naturally textured finished product. 

I started by painting half of my egg with Mod Podge, dipping it into whatever decorative bits I was using from my kitchen, and then let the gluey half dry for a while.

 

Then I would coat the other half of the egg in glue and paint IT with something from the pantry. In the sample below, I taped off a portion of the egg so that I could add a second color. 

When the glue was dry, I carefully removed the tape, painted the raw shell, and then repeated my glue, and sprinkle method...

For this piece, I used black pepper and paprika...

 

The sample below is White Chia seed:

This one is Amaranth seed:

This is some old Thyme I'd had in the pantry- it was no longer good for cooking due to age, so:

For some festive red, I used Red Pepper flakes:

For a reddish brown, I used Rooibos tea:

And here's my Pepper & Paprika egg:

This one was black wild rice (before the glue had fully dried clear):

I love the look of them mixed in with my Natural Dye Eggs...

And I especially love that we blew the whites and yolks out of a few shells, so that we could keep some of our textured eggs for a MUCH longer time than the extremely perishable hard boiled eggs!

Easter is coming! Will you be dying eggs?