Easter Eggs 3 - Chickens

Anne holds a new chick.

We got our beautiful new baby chicks several weeks ago, so it stands to reason that my first egg design should be chickens. 

First I painted all the eggs a tan color.  Then I made different patterns around the eggs: brown, yellow, or white circles, red dots, brown flowers…The toothpicks really come in handy for this, because you never have to touch the egg, and you can use the toothpick as a spindle on which to turn the egg.

Using the toothpick as a spindle to make an even paint line around the egg.

The large egg has a rooster and two baby chicks, the next egg has the hen and a whole egg on the back, the last egg has a newly hatched chick and bits of broken shell on the back.  Nothing here is complicated, the key is simplicity.  I did three sets (nine eggs), which took just under two hours from the beginning of painting time.  Don't forget to put a layer of protecting gloss on your egg (you can get this at any craft store, such as Hobby Lobby). 

To attach the string to the egg, use two strands of embroidery thread, loop it, and tie the ends in a knot.  Place a drop of glue in the egg hole, and put the end of your loop in.  Then place the toothpick back in the hole, and break off the toothpick so that the broken end cannot prick little fingers rubbing over the hole. 

Of course, the point of chicks for Easter is not just that they are a Spring motif.  Chicks represent new (resurrected) life coming forth from the tomb of the egg.  The Rooster has the added symbolism of being the creature that declared Peter's betrayal of Jesus.  He is Truth then, and often is used as a symbol of Christ for this reason.

During this season we remember the significance of the egg from which our lovely chicks came - every good thing (such as Easter and Resurrection) is always preceded by suffering (Lent, the Cross, Death).  How wonderful that God allows us, commands us, to participate in the greatness of death and new birth, in our Baptisms, in every Lent and Easter, and in our final departing from this life into the next.

Gabe holds a new egg.

Easter Eggs 2

 The next step with the eggs is to insert a tooth pick into the egg hole (do not glue - you want to be able to take it out again!).  Then you can stick the eggs in a Styrofoam cube (acquired from packing material).  I used a store-bought gesso for the eggs, but plain white paint will do as well.  The point with the gesso or layer of white paint is to fade out the wood grain and to prevent your later layers from soaking into the wood (with icons you have the additional purpose of wanting a smooth texture so that the paint sticks better to the wood and lasts longer.  Not so important with these craft eggs!). 

I had the privilege, while I was gessoing the eggs, to be praying the Rosary with a CD of our belated Blessed John Paul II.  When it was over I thought about how amazing it is, in our world of technology, that we can hear and see the modern saints.  There is video footage of St. Gianna Beretta Molla.  And who has not seen pictures of Blessed Mother Theresa?
This ability to hear and see our saints is truly a blessing, and a necessity for our modern world, so given to the senses.
But we also forget that the saints are all around us.  One holy man that I personally knew, Fr. Robert Stanion, CFR, was such a saint that you could touch.  I sometimes went to Mass in the morning with him, and then asked to go to confession afterward.  He would refuse unless I had breakfast with him first.  There were usually at least five people breakfasting with him. After breakfast I was around to see a medical technician pulling support hose up around his very swollen, purple legs.  Fr. Robert could not have been in much more pain than he was.  But there was also no other person who exhibited and spread more joy than him. It was nearly impossible to be unhappy in his presence.
Fr. Robert and I discussed iconography and art.  I have hundreds of valuable ideas and thoughts from him.  He wasn't perfect (for instance, unknown to myself at the time, the dining room in which we ate breakfast with him was cloistered, and he wasn't supposed to have us there).  But he was holy.  He knew what his people needed, even if it was a full belly, and more importantly - a heart full of loving conversation - before the Sacrament of Confession.  He knew I needed to see someone who could be peaceful and joyful despite many trials.
Whatever you are doing, whether it be working, praying, dealing with sick or shrieking children, gessoing Easter eggs - remember that even if you don't feel like it, even if you don't think it will make the slightest difference, do everything with a cheerful heart.  Hilarem datorem diligit Deus.  God loves a cheerful giver.  You will spread God's blessing wherever you go.