April 2, 2025

Spring has arrived and I feel like celebrating… sprouting, growing and blooming with plants, chirping and singing with birds, building nests and taking care of eggs… Chicken eggs in particular! 

It must be my Slavic roots drawing me back to spring festivals of pagan tribes. In their spring rites, the eggs symbolized fertility, new life and abundance. Tradition of decorating eggs survived from ancient times through successive generations of girls who learned the delicate art from their mothers and grandmothers. Every region has a specific method – wax painting or resist dying, scratching, straw applications, perforating, and even wire wrapping – and there are as many original patterns as there are girls. Each saves the best egg for a boy that is close to her heart. 
I think that’s one of the reason why this tradition is still alive. Love is perpetual!

Of course, I couldn’t resist the idea of decorating eggs with wire lace, bobbin and needle, and both techniques worked out beautifully. The small scale designs are fun to make for beginners and experienced lacemakers alike. I believe that Spring and Easter decorations are more meaningful when they are made by hand, especially when they are intended for special gift giving. 

My favourite pattern is the Chicken Egg Stand because it holds a lot of creative potential for egg variations. While the stand remains the same, its content changes the overall decorative effect.

Every year my lace chickens are curious how their eggs will look like as we search in the garden to see what we find. This year it’s violas! So many self seeded all over the place and the tiny plants fit perfectly into hollow egg shells. Carefully transplanted, they look very cute in their miniature pots, sitting in the Chicken bases. It is fun to water them daily and wait for the flowers to open. What colours are they going to be?

One Chicken, a dark brown Buckeye, carries an oregano seedling for my friend’s new herb patch. For good luck!

When the plants outgrow their temporary home they will be transferred to the outside pots or beds. The egg shells crushed to small pieces will released calcium carbonate and enrich the soil with essential elements. The plants will grow and blossom all summer long. Seedlings that won’t get transplanted will be composted, so there will be no waste. Mother Nature will be pleased.

The lace chickens will then return to their envelope to rest until next year. Unlike my other Spring/Easter decorations they store flat, taking up hardly any space. 
I am so glad to have them, we enjoy each other’s company during all lovely festivities, spring after spring!

Over the years, I designed more lace egg decorations, mostly as workshop projects, and I see potential for many more.

But sometimes I feel that my “eggthusiasm” is a bit displaced. After all, I have lived in a different part of the world for a long time. Maybe I should start to think about lacy Easter Bunnies 🙂

Cheers to all creative spring ideas, wherever and however they manifest!

Lenka

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