‘Lost and Found’: How to Dye Easter Eggs in Onion Skin with Leaf Pattern
Easter Saturday is for different cultural traditions the last chance to prepare for the great Feast on Easter Sunday, and one of the most important elements to this Feast are of course Easter Eggs. Our today’s preference may be for the one made in chocolate, but the making of Easter Eggs is traditionally not associated with chocolate but rather with the process of dyeing.
Lost and Found
Today, I shall be testing my culinary skills by using the traditional method of dyeing chicken eggs in onion skin and making patters using various leaves I can find in the garden. The method, described below, is very easy indeed, enjoyable and fun thing to do with your kids that does not take very long (1 hour max).
Why the ‘lost and found’ notion in the method? When I moved to London 20 years ago, even I could not resist the temptation of the modern chocolate eggs for many years to come but a few years ago the above result came into existence, a mixture of both worlds (below pictures from 2012, my second attempt) – the traditional method, however, comes from the kitchen of my granny and my mum as well as many women before them in Slovenia, and it certainly seems to be one of the most popular methods in Central Europe. By a quick browse of the internet, the origins of the method of dyeing in onion skin seems to have been widely used in various traditions including in the Greek Orthodox Easter, though the Jewish Passover seems to be by far more closely related to the method I shall describe as it uses various leaves for making patterns. It would be a fun to find more about the origins of this method by next Easter! According to my British mother-in-law, who was brought up in her second home around Newcastle away from the bombs flying over Kent to London during the WWII, dyeing eggs in onion peel also has a very long tradition in the North of England, and I believe, in Scotland. She told me today, this Easter Sunday, that leaves are also added to the egg but onion skin is then attatched to the egg. However, in her method, the leaf design comes out more blurred or even abstracted. I am glad we are able to share our experiences in the making of Easter Eggs. Through reconnecting to our roots and traditions, preparing Easter Eggs is indeed the basic way how to share our experiences in similarities and differences – isn’t that what ‘multi-culture’ is all about? It goes back to the kitchen! And, also it is the place where the competitions begin – here, Master Chef competition series comes in mind! The aim about this article is not to compete but to share, as the making of Easter Eggs is also a celebration of our generations.
The context
But before I describe my method, I would like to place the making of Easter Eggs into the context. The method of dyeing chicken eggs is nothing new. It goes back as far as pagan times, used to celebrate the beginning of Spring – the celebration was focused on the theme of rebirth of nature after a long period of winter and the egg became a symbol of the source of life. This concept is still a core to many cultural traditions around the world. Just like in the case of decorating Christmas Trees, the making of Easter Eggs was also incorporated into Christianity, both in Western and Eastern Churches. The process of recycling this old pagan custom gave a different meaning to the making as it became associated with the body of Christ – there are, however, some local variations, for instance in central Europe, an egg dyed or painted in red came to represent the blood of Christ. But in both cases, the egg is a symbol of resurrection. Natural dye for Easter Eggs was made from local resources, from extracting various vegetables and plants found in nature. For instance, in central Europe, such as Slovenia, one of the most common dyes used was red due to the abundance of red beets. Later on, when industrial colours became available, eggs would be painted with bright colours, or even processes such subtracting, adding, marbling or whatever pattern is desired to achieve was introduced. The method of dyeing seems to be still a more popular choice in Catholic Eastern and Central Europe as well as Orthodox Church. Furthermore, in Christianity, the Easter egg tradition may have further emerged as a celebration of the end of 40 days of fasting during the Lent period. Traditionally, all eggs would be consumed a day before the Lent begins on Ash Wednesday (Mardi Gras in French) – in UK, Shove Tuesday is reserved for making pancakes and in Slovenia, for making doughnuts as part of the carnival tradition – and then by no means to be eaten until Easter Sunday!
On the other hand, the West has predominantly embraced a more modern custom with chocolate eggs of various sizes or plastic eggs filled with confectionery such as jelly beans. Chocolate Eggs are indeed a modern invention, as a result of industrial revolution of the 19th century that enabled a mass production. They first appeared in Germany and France as Easter presents. The Continental fashion spread to UK, with Cadbury Easter Egg that first appeared in 1875 – according to the Locally Sourced, the maker informs them that their Creme Egg is the number one best seller of Easter Eggs in the world, with more than 213 million eaten every year! The number is rather astonishing, as, in my opinion, I only tried the egg once, but could not finished – I am not a chocoholic, so for me too much sugar rather than cocoa, is rather nothing that something.
Chocolate Easter Bunnies also came from the southwestern Germanic tradition of early 17th century – the mythical humanoid rabbit that brings baskets of coloured eggs to children. The Germans further invented a very popular children’s Easter Egg Hunt, now played across the globe – in which children have to search for eggs in the garden on an Easter Sunday morning that Bunny left them hidden there over night! In addition, the Germans were also the first who created edible Easter Bunnies in the early 1800s. Rabbits and hares, of course, have nothing to do with the Christianity, so this element is purely of a pagan origin, as symbols of springtime rebirth and fertility. Many other traditional games have developed around Easter egg, including competitions of eggs rolling down the hill or tapping each other’s eggs. Also, exchanging Easter Eggs as presents has generally become a way of expressing love and friendship.
Method
I normally use a pack of 12 medium size Free Range Eggs.
Advice: while using the skin from 5 ordinary onions, add skin from 2 red onions as it gives an extra kick to the intensity of natural colour. If you do not have the red sort in your cupboard, that’s fine too, they will just appear lighter in brown colour.
If you feel lazy, you can just add your eggs straight to the water full of skin, then slowly bring to boil and cook them for 10 mins with the gas down. Once cooked – some people say it’s best to leave them in water to cool down so that they do not go green on the rims of the yellow of the egg, while others believe that if you pour over them with cold water after cooking is finished, you get a better result. I agree with the second option!
For decoration
1. First collect various leaves of plants, grass and weeds from your garden – the better the shape the better result.
2. Recycle your old tights / nylon socks – if you have them in your wardrobe, otherwise the cheapest kind in your corner shop will do, cut them into pieces larger than the egg, and find the thread for a later use.
3. Then stick a leaf onto each egg or wrap around it, and by holding it down tight on the egg, wrap the piece of tights around the egg. Then squeeze gently the piece of tights so that it holds the leaf well in place, and while twisting the end tightly, finally wrap around the thread, so that the piece of thighs stays put on the egg during cooking. One egg done, more to go, the same process, different design.
4. For an extra shine, when the eggs are more or less cooled down, add a bit of olive oil on a piece of paper kitchen towel, put the egg onto it and by holding them both in your hands gently roll the egg among your hands.
Of course, again, I had to add chocolate eggs, I live in London after all, where different cultures meet and mix. Happy Easter.
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World Book Day 2012
Today is World Book Day in the UK, and I contributed a postcard to the Random Project to mark this occasion. The words related to the theme were: “Words”, “Dream”, “World” and “Imagine”. The postcard below is a response to the “Words”.
The hand-made letters were originally created for a public art installation – France Prešeren’s New Outfit – dressing the Slovene Romantic poet in a huge cloak, whose monument stands in the main square in Ljubljana. The project was created for the Festival Fabula 2010, run by a literary book publisher Študentska založba, as the central event of Ljubljana time as UNESCO World Book Capital 2010. I have created over 200 book covers for the publisher since 2007, hence my naughty play on the usual phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover”.
World Book Day (World Book and Copyright Day) is a yearly event organised by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. It is a celebration of authors, illustrators and books. According to the UK World Book Day, the main aim of today in the UK and Ireland is to encourage children of all ages to come together in order to explore the pleasure of books and reading by providing them with a £1 token against the purchase of a book from the list. The organisation will send these tokens to schools that participate in World Book Day.
According to Wikimedia, World Book Day was celebrated for the first time on 23 April. The connection between this date and books was first made in 1923 by Spanish booksellers to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes in the Catalonian festival who died on that day.
In 1995 UNESCO decided that World Book Day would be celebrated on that day, as the source say, because of the Catalonian festival and because the date is also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare, the death of Carvantes, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Josep Pia, and the birth of Maurice Druon, Vladimir Nabokov, Manuel Mejíla Vallejo and Halldór Laxness.
The date for World Book Day however differs from country to country. In the UK and the Republic of Ireland is held annually on the first Thursday in March as the established international 23 April would clash with Easter school holidays and as the 23 April is also the National Saint’s day of England, St George’s Day.
World Book Day is not funded by the British government. The funding for activities mainly comes from the major sponsor, National Book Tokens, and the UK book trade (publishers and booksellers).
So much more important that books still get published in hard copies. Cheers.
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Project: The Meal
I responded to the Art House Co-op’s first annual global snack project, called The Meal, which the team in New York, based at Brooklyn Art Library, describes in a few simple but beautiful words as “One moment. One meal. Let’s eat”. The team had asked thousands of people around the world to participate in a simultaneous meal with strangers, which took place on 24th Feb 2012 at 12pm EST. The team also said that the aim of the project was to encourage the artists to “take a moment from our hectic lives” in order “to inspire a feeling of community across geographic and cultural boundaries”, while addressing the statement “you are what you eat”. The slogan “what you eat” is never enough for nearly a billion people around the world and the project is therefore a call for our awareness of the growing problem in the struggle against global hunger.
My piece is called London Meal as I have lived in London (UK) for over 20 years. As London is ahead of New York for 5 hours, it meant that my meal had to be prepared for a traditional British afternoon tea at 5pm (GMT), to be eaten with a cup of British style tea rather than with a can of Coca Cola as in New York. To re-emphasise the concept of multi-cultural and global event, I therefore decided to test my technical – culinary – skills that I learnt in my mother’s kitchen in Slovenia. I also thought that such a global collaborative event had to be documented differently, not directly associated with the cooking skills of Slovenia, but applying a valuable skill of hand-made lettering I have acquired in London while attending a pioneering course on experimental typography at the University of the Arts. The course reopened endless thoughts and searches on how one can make use of any traditional technical skill for a project and recycle the skill in another context in order to give it a new meaning.
I first prepared yeast dough, used traditionally in Slovenia at carnival and at other special occasions, which needed to rise. I then prepared letter templates for letters based on Helvetica. Once I cut out the letters from the dough, the letters had to rise again. They were then deep-fried, drained from oil and decorated with icing sugar. All photos were then shown in an exhibition documenting the world’s largest communal snack on 5th April 2012 at Brooklyn Art Library.
Photos of the show click Facebook.
Photos of all submissions click Facebook.
And what a great meal that was. Yummy! And thanks to the team at the Art House Co-0p to think of such an inspiring project.
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The Sketchbook Project 2012: Stitches and Folds
I decided again this year to participate in the Sketchbook Project 2012, the main project out of many run by the Art House Co-op based at The Brooklyn Art Library in New York. This year nearly 20,000 of sketchbooks will be exhibited in 14 cities across North America, and for the first time this year, in London for contributors from Europe and in Melbourne if the artist resides in Australia.
For the details of the Project Overview see the post about last year’s Fiction Sketchbook. The only difference between this and the fiction one is that with this project you did not have to tell the story in text. You are free to develop your theme.
The theme I picked this time is Stitches and Folds. The entire sketchbook was folded and stitched. I folded the pages inwards, starting from the middle of the sketchbook, with the first two pages folded so that the outer edges met the gutter. I then folded each page, with the size of each fold decreasing in equal increments towards each end of the book. I then added various papers under each fold, stitching folds and papers together each time with a different kind of stitch and at a random pace, using threads varying in thickness and colour.
For images of all other pages of this Sketchbook Project click Flickr. Here are some examples.
The tour stars in April 2012, and we shall welcome the sketchbooks in London this October.
Brooklyn, NY April 14th-30thBrooklyn Art Library
103A N. 3rd St
Brooklyn, NY 11249 Chicago, IL May 3rd-5th Hyde Park Art Center 5020 S. Cornell Avenue Chicago, IL 60615 Portland, OR May 11th-13th The Cleaners at the Ace Hotel 1022 SW Stark St Portland, OR Vancouver, Canada May 15th-16th W2 Media Cafe 111 W Hastings St. Vancouver, BC Los Angeles, CA May 24th-26th iam8bit 2147 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA San Francisco Bay Area June Pop-Up Library Greater Boston Area July 6th-8th LynnArts 25 Exchange Street Lynn, MA Portland, ME July 11th-14th SPACE Gallery 538 Congress Street Portland, ME 04101 Toronto, Canada July 18th-22nd The Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen St. W Toronto, ON Philadelphia, PA Aug 23rd-25th The Painted Bride co-presented with InLiquid 230 Vine Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 Atlanta, GA Aug 29th – Sept 1st MASS Collective 364 Nelson St. SW Atlanta, GA Austin, TX September 8th-16th Co-Lab Project Space 613 Allen St. Austin, TX London, England October Canada Water Library co-presented with The Albany and Southwark Council 21 Surrey Quays Rd. London, SE16 Melbourne, Australia November 10th-21st NGV Studio Federation Square Russell & Flinders Sts Melbourne
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Today’s Olympic Logo – Day No. 206
My contribution of 5 doughnuts t0 the Olympic Logo a Day 206 project led by Sarah Hydman, a Creative Director of With Relish.
The dougnuts are traditionally eaten in Slovenia during the carnival period. These doughnuts on the plate have already been eaten since yesterday was the last day of the carnival!
Random Project 2012: Happy Anniversary Queen Liz
It’s 60 years today since The Queen ascended to the throne and the Random Project created some postcards to commemmorate this event – the words picked were “Queen”, “Jubilee” and “Diamond” (the postcard below is a response to the word “Queen”).
The Random Project shows a growing collection of postcards. The postcards were originally first shown in an exhibition of typographically led work held as part of the London Design Festival in 2006. The exibition showed experimental projects based on randomly selected words from Time Out. My word in the Random show, beautiful, is pivotal in the novel A Day in Spring (1953) by Slovene writer Ciril Kosmač (1910-1980). The author, who spent many years in exile, suffuses his prose with nostalgia and a sense of longing for his native landscape. The postcard Drink from the original show was then further exhibited as part of the Great British Design? conference at St Bride’s Library in London (2007).
A large number of creatives worldwide have since contributed their postcards to the project including Alan Kitching, Alan Rickman, Ed Fella and Stefan Sagmeister to name but a few.
The 2012 Project celebrates the spirit of London during the year in which the city is hosting the Olympic Games 2012. Each postcard is thus designed in response to a randomly picked word relating to either 2012, London or the Olympics.
The project is open to everyone of all ages, creatives or non-creatives. If you are interested to join in and create a postcard please click here to find out how to participate.
Have fun!
Fiction Sketchbook Project 2011
The Cover
I participated in the Fiction Sketchbook Project 2011, which is one of many Sketchbook Projects run by the Art House Co-op based at The Brooklyn Art Library. Since its inception in 2006, the Art House Co-op has initiated many international art projects and has brought together thousands of artists from all over the world.
Project Overview
The Fiction Sketchbook Project is an opportunity to tell stories in a different way by fusing text and images. As a rule of thumb, the Art House Co-op recommends that you dedicate 51% of your sketchbook to words.
After you sign up to participate in the project, Art House Co-op sends you a Moleskin sketchbook (in this case, 5.25×8.25 inches). You can choose from a list of 40 themes. You can either select one for your book, or choose to have a theme randomly assigned to you. However, once you have chosen your theme you’re stuck with it! The themes are supposed to be a starting point, not a restriction. The theme I chose is It must be…
I decided from the start to treat my chosen theme as if I was constructing a children’s picture book in the sketchbook. I wrote a simple narrative about four seasons seen through the eyes of a child. Each spread was therefore carefully worked out in advance on the basis that it was to contain a single sentence accompanied by a direct visual response.
You are free to rebind the sketchbook, use a different paper, and do whatever you want to the front and back covers. This sketchbook was rebound in a Coptic style binding using Fabriano Hot Press 90lb paper.
You can use any medium as long as the book keeps to the same dimensions when closed. This sketchbook uses a mixed media combining illustration with photography, typography, traditional techniques such as handprinting, stitching and patchwork, crocheting, and industrial materials such as scrim tape.
Finally, as you are especially encouraged to write the text by hand, I chose to use a hand-written script type created a while ago in association with a book cover for Beletrina and have since used it in other occasions.
For all images of this Fiction Sketchbook click Flickr. Here are some examples.
Spring
Summer
Autumn
Winter
After traveling across the United States (see the venues below), the Fiction Project will enter into the Brooklyn Art Library’s narrative collection.
Brooklyn Art Library 103A N. 3rd St. Brooklyn, NY 11211 (Open Tue – Sun: Noon – 8pm, closed Mondays) www.arthousecoop.com Sketchbook Project Tour June 10-12, 2011 Form/Space Atelier Seattle, WA www.formspaceatelier.com June 16-18, 2011 Madrone Studios San Francisco, CA www.madronestudios.com July 14-17, 2011 Hyde Park Art Center Chicago, IL www.hydeparkart.org July 29-31, 2011 Full Sail University Winter Park, FL www.fullsail.edu/galleryFrance Prešeren’s New Outfit Installation / May 2010
Baptism at the River Savica
Art installation in process
The monument dedicated to the most important Slovene poet, France Prešeren (1800-49), which stands in the central square of Ljubljana, was transformed for a day (21 May 2010) during the Fabula Festival, the central event of Ljubljana time as UNESCO World Book Capital 2010. This public art installation gave the poet a new outfit covered in hand-made lettering from stanzas of his longest work in verse, Baptism at the River Savica.
I was very pleased with the final outcome of the work, which took almost a month to complete. Also, when finally installed, I was especially relieved to see that the tunic fitted the poet as if made-to-measure, when in reality I had to work with the tailor Lidija Kešnar around the measurements I made from a photograph.
Passers-by
And the hard work indeed paid off. The project was received very well by passers-by – and many of them took out their cameras! I was especially pleased with the comment by somebody from the City Museum who shared his appreciation for the project by saying that the installation was “more than culture” and that the city of Ljubljana needed projects like this.
Above all, I was particularly pleased that the media was interested in covering the project on TV Slovenia 1 as well as in print and online. For a full report of the project, photos and video of the installation showing my interview with the journalist Živa Rogelj see RTV Slovenia, who said that “Prešeren was stoically coping with the adornment, while two other statues nearby were observing this moment in silence”.
Young typo enthusiasts, Živa and Luka
A report by the Slovene Press Agency was published in the national newspaper Dnevnik among others. Also, A.H. wrote in an article titled “Prešeren v novi preobleki” published in the national newspaper Dnevnik (22 May 2010) that Prešeren’s longest work in verse, Baptism at the River Savica, had received “a form as never seen before” and that “the project gave Ljubljana a new artistic inspiration”.
The tunic was only displayed for a day, but it is hoped that there will be other opportunities to show it for a longer period, or even that a more permanent place of display can be found.
Art installation for a day in all weather conditions
Many many thanks to the organiser, Študentska založba, who supported my project idea. A special thanks to my family for their moral support during the month and particularly to my mum who helped me with the making of the letters. And finally, thanks to the tough guys, Marko Murč and Primož Kuharič of Študentska založba, who helped me to install the new outfit, very heavy in weight indeed.
Installation team
More installation photos on Flick.
Press Release: France Prešeren’s New Outfit / May 2010
UNESCO’s event – Ljubljana, World Book Capital 2010: Friday, 21 May, from 8 am – 23 pm, The Prešeren Square, Ljubljana, Slovenia
France Prešeren’s New Outfit
Baptism at the River Savica
The monument dedicated to the most important Slovene poet, France Prešeren (1800-49), which stands in the central square of Ljubljana, will be transformed for a day during the Fabula Festival, the central event of Ljubljana time as UNESCO World Book Capital 2010. A public art installation, giving Prešeren a new outfit covered in hand-made lettering from stanzas of the poet’s longest work in verse, Baptism at the River Savica, will be realised by the designer and illustrator Andreja Brulc.
The sculpture of the poet will be draped in a unique black tunic (pallerina), which is stylistically reminiscent of the cloaks fashionable during the time of the poet. The tunic will have a larger collar made out of a fine velvet, which will overhang the poet’s shoulders and will be tightened around the neck with a large bow. The tunic will then be divided into two parts at the back of the lower part of his legs and will continue in a billowing manner down each side of the pedestal to the first step of the monument. The statue is about 3 metres tall, with an additional 2 metres for the pedestal.
The selection of the text will be from the most important passages from the poem, and in particular those that are part of the school curriculum. The emphasis is especially on the connection of two vital speeches between Črtomir and Bogomila, the main protagonists of the poem. The purpose of the selection, and the execution of the whole design, is to conceptually connect the iconic status of the public monument to the work produced by the poet himself and the private voices of the speakers in the poem.
The text, executed in an experimental typographical manner, will run with the male voice on one side and the female voice on the other side of the poet’s sculptural body. The text begins at the same height as the book that the poet is holding, and this gives the impression of the letters falling from the pages. The overall design and experimental letter forms give a strong sense of the text travelling, coming closer and further away, and in this way attract the attention of readers, inviting them to read the poem.
Technique and material
The principal technique for transferring the text on the cloth is stenciling. The visual impact of the experimental typography is enhanced by the combination in the use of traditional techniques, such as sewing and stitching, knitting and crocheting, and patchwork letters made from textiles.
For more photos see on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/39890289@N05/sets/72157623978334159/
Photos of the tunic installed on the monument still to come.
Wall Murals
Wall murals for the Press Room of Študentska založba, a site-specific project to serve as a backdrop for a series of press conferences during the international Fabula Festival – Literatures of the World Festival, the central event of Ljubljana time as UNESCO World Book Capital 2010. The monumental murals were based on book-cover illustrations that I created over the previous years for the imprint. The project demanded a high level of technical skills as wall murals were not only executed in acrylics – the medium not normally used for the cover illustrations – but they were also larger in scale than the originals. I used a projector in order to transfer the illustrations to the dimensions of the walls, the method of which also enabled me trace the originals and keep the murals as close to the book covers as possible. Furthermore, the illustrations were carefully selected in order to reflect the life in the city of Ljubljana, where the publisher is based.
As you enter the room, the wall on the left has a composition of three tall blocks of flats, smaller in scale but immediately recognisable as typical architecture of the 1960s and 70s encountered in the city, the legacy of the communist regime in building large block of flats with an utopian idea of social housing, but at the same time the legacy of aesthetic connections with Le Corbusier and the West. This piece was made as an element to one of the 16 illustrations, which were reproduced inside a poetry collection (2009).
The central wall, opposite, represents the life in the city, based on the silhouetting artwork done for the cover of a poetry book (2008). It consists of a composition of life-size figures: some busy going to work towards the left (symbolically towards the innermost wall showing a hand indicating a place where business is conducted, created especially for these murals, 2010); some walking at leisure away from the viewer; some walking towards the right, that is, towards the external wall containing windows, between which there is a tree (back illustration for a fiction book, 2007) symbolically painted as if life after work continues in the park (a female figure walking a dog indicates that she is moving towards the park). Or even, a more mischievous thought, when sitting on the sofa along the innermost wall looking towards the windows, the tree becomes a symbol for a desire to escape, away from the busy life at work and of the city, into a life of contemplation and relaxation in the park. And as if that is not enough, for a rest after a long walk to the park, one can sit and read a book on the chair (a detail from a poetry book, 2007) and still pretend that work is being done. As offices are famous for rapid cleaning sessions, a spider (a fiction book, 2009) awaits you the next morning as it sits in its web in the corner!
The central wall served as a background for the photographic project called The Reader by the photographer Domen Grögl as part of the Fabula Festival 2010, the central event of Ljubljana time as UNESCO World Book Capital 2010. The Reader shows 9 people associated with literature in Slovenia, each holding a book and shown individually on a 2 x 3 m board displayed on the river bank of Ljubljanica during the Festival.
The Reader © Domen Grögl
For more photos see Flickr.
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