How-To

Jeweled Eggs

Adorned with artificial flowers and shimmering with Swarovski crystals, these hanging eggs make a dazzling addition to any Easter decor. As Martha explains, you can suspend them in front of a window, on a decorative tree, or even from a chandelier.

To begin, you'll need blown-out eggs. To blow them yourself, pierce one end of a raw egg with a pin, working over a bowl. Pierce the other end, and use the pin to enlarge the hole slightly and break the yolk. Blow out the insides using an egg-blowing tool or a rubber ear-syringe (available at pharmacies), forcing the contents of the egg out through the larger hole into the bowl. Do not let the liquid touch the shell. Rinse, and let dry.

Tools and Materials
Blown-out eggs
Pewter paste (optional)
Latex gloves, if using pewter paste
Paper towel, if using pewter paste
20-inch length of .5 millimeter jewelry elastic
Teardrop-or pear-shaped Swarovski crystal bead with horizontal hole
Fabric flowers
Wire cutters
Beading needle, for smaller eggs
6-inch piece of wire and pliers, for larger eggs
Needle or Dremel drill, if using store-bought blown eggs

Jeweled Eggs How-To
1. Apply a pewter finish to the egg, if desired. (If you're using a naturally colored egg, such as a blue duck egg, you might want to leave it untouched; if so, proceed to Step 2.) To apply the pewter, wearing latex gloves, use your fingers to rub the pewter paste into a small section of the egg; immediately buff the area with a dry paper towel. Repeat process until entire egg is covered.

2. To hang the egg from the jewelry elastic, thread the jewelry elastic through the hole in the teardrop-or pear-shaped bead. Double the jewelry elastic, then thread a fabric flower round on top of the bead. Fabric flowers are made up of flower rounds stacked one on top of another; each flower round has a hole in the middle. To separate the rounds, use wire cutters to snip the head off the flower, close to its base. Gently pull apart the rounds. Fabric flowers consist of about eight rounds each, so you can decorate several eggs with one flower.

3. Thread the doubled jewelry elastic into the beading needle for a small egg, or for a larger egg, make a long needle by taking a 6-inch piece of wire and bending a small loop at one end using a pair of pliers (make sure the loop is small enough to enter and exit the holes in the egg). Thread the jewelry elastic bottom to top through the egg; the bead acts like a knot at the bottom of the egg. If you're using store-bought blown eggs, you'll have only one hole in the egg, so you'll need to use a needle or your Dremel drill to create another hole at the top of the egg so you can thread it (the hole should be about 1/8-inch in diameter).

4. Remove jewelry elastic from needle (the needle will not fit through the hole in the bead), and thread both ends of the elastic through a bead with a top-to-bottom hole. Tie ends of elastic together in a knot, and hang the egg as desired.