Making Armenian Easter Eggs... Badly

Most craft blogs showing pictures of works-in-progress end with a shot of the successful final result. But isn't craft sometimes about applying considerable effort only to wind up with something other than what you expected? Isn't craft sometimes about failed attempts? Sure it is. That's how we learn!

Case in point: making Armenian Easter Eggs at my friend Hrag's apartment last night. Hrag (who blogs here) had invited me and Veken over to watch him transform pedestrian white eggs into ruby-red orbs of vernal glory, and I couldn't help but take some pictures to blog about it.

But instead of red eggs, his efforts yielded sometime altogether different, and much funnier: he transformed white eggs into brown eggs! When he was done, we truly could not tell the difference between the brown eggs in his fridge and the white eggs he'd dyed.

At the end of the day, craft isn't so much about the final result as the process. For me, I had fun, learned something about someone else's holiday craft traditions, and know what to do differently next year (hint: use purple, not Spanish, onions; dry the onion skins first; and use vinegar!)

Happy Easter!

Hrag blowing out the eggs. He pointed out that they're organic.

After letting the red onion skins simmer for a while, he stirred the hollow eggs into the dye. Things looked promising at first!

What we were expecting... (photo sourced here)...

...and what we got. After quite some time cooking in the dye, this is the "reddest" they turned.

Hrag put two of the dyed eggs in with actual brown eggs. We couldn't tell the difference. Can you?

Hrag also dyed 2 hardboiled eggs so he and Veken could play the traditional egg fight game. (Veken won.)

Good natured about it all, Hrag enjoys a post-crafting sandwich and a good laugh!