Today I want to show you how to make a ‘dragon egg’ from a duck egg! These were actually the beautiful result of a craft fail. I was trying to make these lovely ombre dyed eggs, so I followed a tutorial for dying chicken egg shells using vinegar and food colouring. I’m not sure if it’s because I used a different brand of food colouring (or because the eggs were still hot when I did it, or because I used duck eggs), but the eggs fizzed and made bubbles, resulting in this gorgeous mottled effect!
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To make a dragon egg, you will need:
- Fresh duck eggs
- Gel food colouring (we used ProGel Rainbow Dust in pink, baby blue and purple – I have not tried any other brand, so I don’t know if it would work with another, but I’d be interested to find out, so do tell me in the comments if you try another)!
- White vinegar
- Just-boiled water
- A non-metal container or containers (1 per colour)
How to make a dragon egg:
- Hard boil your duck eggs (let’s assume you won’t be eating the finished eggs, so we won’t worry about the flavour – 12 minutes should do it).
- While your eggs are boiling, decide how many different colours you would like to use and for each colour, prepare a non-metallic bowl with a tablespoon of white wine vinegar and a ball-bearing sized blob of food colouring gel. Mix these well. You could experiment with colour-mixing too (let me know how you get on)!
- Once the eggs are hard-boiled, put your kettle on and add 1/2 cup of just-boiled water to each of the bowls of colour, then stir.
- Add your still-warm duck eggs to the coloured mixture(s) and set a timer for 10 minutes. The mixture will probably not cover your eggs completely, but that’s okay. The eggs should start to get bubbles on the surface and fizz.
- After 10 minutes, add 1cm more water to each mixture.
- After another 10 minutes, add enough water to cover the eggs and leave them to go cold.
- Rinse your eggs and pat them dry with kitchen paper. You may need to rub some areas of the eggs to smooth the shell and remove any flaky bits.
- Allow the eggs to dry away from one another (to prevent colour transference) on paper towels.
I was so pleased with the way these turned out and to me each one looks like a magical dragon egg. They also make gorgeous Easter decorations!
Other ideas:
As well as looking like a dragon egg, these could be used in other ways, including, but not limited to…
- dinosaur eggs (great for a themed scavenger hunt)
- galaxy eggs (to prompt a discussion about outer space, planets and stars)
- science (conduct an experiment to find out why the egg shells fizzed)
- colour mixing (use only primary colours and encourage kids to make secondary colours using these)
Please share your dragon egg creations with me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – I would love to see!
i think these are beautiful, far too pretty to eat!
Thanks Tracey! We will definitely NOT be eating ours, as they have been on our mantle-piece for over a week… 😉
These turned out so beautifully! Thank you for linking up to #GetYourCraftOn
Thanks Liz – I was very relieved that despite being a craft fail, they still look lovely as Easter decorations! 😉
I can not get over the vivid color pattern on these eggs! They are absolutely beautiful! And calling them dragon eggs was brilliant! A great way to get the boys (especially the older boys, that think they’re too big for dying eggs) back into the fun! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Thanks Samantha – the food colouring gel is so highly concentrated, they really give a great colour with just a teensy bit 🙂
Ha – yes I know what you mean about older boys – hopefully this is an Easter activity that all ages can enjoy!
These are super cute, but I’m guessing you meant to link these up to Share it Saturday, instead you linked them at Field Trip Friday! Feel free to come back and link to the right one!
Ooooops! Thanks so much Jennifer – popping over now to re-link… :s
Ooh these look lovely! We are about to visit Dorset for a little holiday and some fossil hunting -I reckon we’ll be making some dinosaur eggs 🙂 thanks!
Oh that sounds SO fun Jenni – let me know if you find any!!
Genius idea. My son loves dragons and I’m sure would find this craft exciting. I love the way the eggs turned out. Pinning! #mondaypinitparty
Thanks Yanique – they’re my best craft fail yet!
P.S. What little boy doesn’t love dragons? 😉
Hi there! Stopping by from Motivational Monday. These are so beautiful! Thank you for sharing! I love the last one the most!
Thanks Ashley – me too! 😀
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These are fab. Think Im going to try these with the kids this holiday. Thanks for joining in the parenting pin it party
How did they work out for you? Fingers crossed the tutorial worked! 😉
Love these. I’ve not tried with food colouring, but saw a tutorial the other day which was for galaxy eggs which looked really cool. Like yours but just topped off with black.
Oh – that sounds fun too Emma! My eldest is really into space at the moment, so I will have to search Pinterest for those… 🙂
You’ve created some brilliant eggs here and thank you for the how too section.
I missed out on egg decorating (the family did it on Friday and I was working) but I might try and convince them to have another go tomorrow when I will be there as well 🙂
Thank you Ashley! Aaw, that’s a shame that you missed out – I hope you get a chance to decorate eggs tomorrow – it’s so fun.
These are so brilliant! Thank you so much for sharing with the pin it party. I have chosen it as one of this weeks featured posts 🙂
Fantastic – thank you!
These are fantastic! My son would get a kick out of dragon eggs!
Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!
Thanks Jill – the great thing about dragon eggs is that you can make them at any time of year! 😉
These are stunning! Thank you for linking up to Image of the Week x
Thank you Megan – I was surprised at how well they turned out!