Egg Decorating Tools

Essential Egg Decorating Tools

• Pencil and paper
• Scissors
• A measuring tape (or ruler and string)
• White craft glue, a hot glue gun, glue sticks, and cellophane tape
• Darning or tapestry needles (for piercing eggs)
• Paintbrushes (large and small, broad- and fine-tipped)
• Undyed wooden toothpicks (for placing dabs of glue where you want them)
• Bamboo skewers
• Plastic kitchen wrap (useful when gluing anything to an egg)

Other Handy Egg Decorating Tools

• Bone folders: Great for burnishing glued things and smoothing out wrinkles in tape or paper. If you don’t have a bone folder, a craft stick will work as well.
• Hand-held, motorized cutting tools: Use them to drill holes, cut things apart, and to sand.
• Craft lathe: Perfect if you need both hands free or want to paint a continuous line around an egg. You can find these light-duty tools in craft stores or on websites that specialize in egg craft or pysanky (traditional Ukrainian decorated eggs). In a pinch, you can also simply place a blown egg on a bamboo skewer. Stand the skewer in a piece of polystyrene foam if you need to use two hands, or hold the skewer in one hand as you decorate the egg with the other.
   
  
• Kystka or tjanting tool: For applying melted beeswax to a surface. Ukrainian pysanky makers use many types of kystka, electric or heated with a small flame. Traditional batik dyers use a tool called a tjanting. Each of these tools is basically a small funnel attached to a stick. Wax is placed in the funnel and heated. The tool is then drawn across the surface, creating a wax line.
   
  
• Drying rack: To avoid the large, unsightly spots that develop on shells when you put wet, dyed eggs on a flat surface to dry. A blown and cleaned egg needs to drain and dry before you use it, so make a rack with a piece of hard polystyrene foam and bamboo skewers, short lengths of coat hanger wire, or even toothpicks inserted into the foam. Slip blown eggs onto skewers, or prop dyed eggs on a trio of toothpicks, and they’ll dry or drain overnight. You can also use the rack to hold eggs in place if you use aerosol paint or varnish.
   
  
• Doll needle: For threading ribbon through eggs. The length of the needle makes it easy to run the needle through all but the largest of eggs, and its large eye is easy to thread.
• Rubber or latex gloves: To protect your hands when you’re dyeing eggs. If you don’t want to walk around with blue or green fingers keep a stash of gloves handy.
• Nonreactive pans: To keep eggs from reacting and changing color when they come in contact with metal pans. Enamel-coated or glass pans are best. If you plan to do a lot of egg-dyeing, it’s wise to buy a pan and reserve it solely for dyes.
• Slotted plastic serving spoons: For lifting eggs from a dye bath. Make sure the spoons are strong enough and big enough to securely lift the egg.
• Syringes (without needles): For injecting soapy water into a blown egg for a final cleaning. You can also inject dye inside a blown egg.