Erika Kim Milenkovic
  • Home
  • Art
    • What's Your View?
    • #TakeASketchLeaveASketch
    • SynchroSwim 2014
    • Man
    • Nature
    • Handmade Paper
  • Blog
  • Bio
  • Resume
  • Contact

Serbian Easter: A How-to Guide

4/21/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Great results from one of our students!
As I mentioned in my last post, I had the awesome opportunity to teach a Serbian Easter Crash Course at Mesh Baltimore yesterday with my friend Lora. For everyone's information, Serbia celebrates Orthodox Easter which falls on May 5 this year, so this workshop was just in time.

From an artist's perspective, I don't think there is a holiday more suited for me than Serbian Easter. Read on to learn how you can make your own beautiful eggs!

What you'll need:

- Onion skins (spinach, beets, coffee or other colorful foods can work, too)
- Eggs (brown tend to work better)
- Leaves, flowers, grass to decorate with (you can also use other found material or wax)
- Panty hose cut into 3" x 3" squares, approximately
- String/yarn
- Oil

How it's done:

1. Peel brown skins off the onions and put them in a pot. It's OK if some onion gets in the pot. The more onion skins, the stronger the dye.

2. Fill pot with enough water to just cover the onion skins. Boil the onions skins for 5-10 minutes. Turn off heat to let mixture cool down. For darker color, let sit overnight.

3. To prepare the egg, place leaves or flowers face down on the egg. Soft, smooth, flat leaves work better for this.

4. Once you have positioned your design on the egg, wrap the pantyhose over the egg tightly. Gather the excess pantyhose and twist before tying it with a string.

5. Add eggs to the not-too-hot dye pot and make sure the eggs are covered by the liquid. Add water if needed.

6. Bring to a boil, and boil 5-10 minutes. After the eggs look dark, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit at least 5 minutes or until cooled.

7. Cut off the pantyhose and remove leaves. Rub with a little bit of oil and you're done!

Customs:

- Serbian Easter Eggs are normally made the night before Easter.

- The first egg that a household makes should be completely red with no patterns. This egg a symbol of protection and prosperity and will be displayed in the house all year until the next Easter when a new one takes its place. Family members symbolically "wash" their face with it the day after it is made. This is done by holding the egg intact in one hand while splashing your face with water.

- Families make plenty of eggs to exchange with friends. After you exchange them, you can eat them.

- There is a game that everyone plays to see whose egg will not crack. Friends tap each other's eggs tournament style, and the person whose egg does not crack, wins.

To see more pictures from our workshop, check out my Facebook page!
0 Comments

Welcome to my blog

4/21/2013

2 Comments

 
I had what I like to call an extremely "art-filled day" yesterday. It started off with my having the pleasure of teaching a Serbian Easter Crash Course to a group of learners at Mesh Baltimore, and ended with me catching up with some great folks at School 33's Lotta Art event in the evening. Actually, the day ended with me completely zonked out on the couch, unresponsive to my husband's urgings to at least move to the bedroom, but what can I say? Art is about energy and action, and when you do a lot of it, you earn your rest.

Please follow my blog to stay up to date on all my creative activities in Baltimore. I hope this blog will help you see
2 Comments

    Art Blog

    Stay up to date on Erika's work and activities!

    Archives

    April 2021
    January 2019
    August 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013

    Categories

    All
    Art And Parenthood
    Art Out Of Recycled Materials
    Baltimore
    Call For Artists
    Collaboration
    Colorado
    Community
    How To Make It As An Artist
    Inspirations
    Life With An Art Degree
    Nature Art
    Paper Art
    Public Art
    Serbian Easter
    SynchroSwim
    #takeasketchleaveasketch

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.