The ancient Ukrainian form of decorating eggs, pysanky, starts with a blown egg — that is, an egg shell with all the gooey insides removed. Although you may never aspire to spend time decorating eggs as an art form, blown eggs are good at helping you preserve any hard work you or your family creates for Easter. Perhaps you’ll want to do just a few so that you can create keepsake ornaments to mark your child’s decorating skills and talent as each year progresses.
Grab some eggs, a straight pin, and bowl and follow these instructions:
Starting at the narrow end of the egg, gently pierce a hole through the shell and membrane with a straight pin.
If you want to dye the egg, be sure to keep the raw egg intact, dye it first, and then blow out the contents. Otherwise, you’ll have floating eggs on dye (nothing like bobbing for eggshells in dye!).
Turn the egg over and pierce a hole through the shell and membrane with a straight pin in the center of the bottom of the egg. Use the pin to gently start removing more bits of the shell and membrane to make a hole approximately 1/16-inch in diameter. Pierce the yolk.
Pressing your lips to the top of the egg, blow the insides of the raw egg out of the bottom of the egg into a bowl.
Try not to touch the raw egg.
Rinse the inside and outside of the shell with a 1:1 mixture of vinegar and water.
Use paints, stamps, colored tissue paper, or whatever you desire to decorate your freshly blown egg.
Blowing an egg means that a raw egg is blown from the insides of the shell. Although this craft has been done for centuries, don’t get careless when handling raw eggs. Be safe to avoid illness.
If you can, blow eggs safely by investing in an egg blowing kit, or at the very least buy an ear syringe used for irrigating and cleaning ears. (You can find them at any drug or discount store.) Use the ear bulb to blow air into the egg, removing the insides, instead of placing the egg to your lips. You can also use the bulb to squirt a vinegar and water cleaning solution inside the egg to clean and remove any remains. Take care to wash your hands thoroughly with an antibacterial soap after removing the insides of the egg.
Thinking about making some omelets with your discards? That might be okay if you cook them immediately (and if your family doesn’t mind a bit of accidental spit on the side). Otherwise, discard the eggs away from children and pets and clean the area thoroughly with a disinfectant.