How To Make Papier Mâché Eggs and Decorate Them

Creating papier mache eggs is a fun activity to do with children at Easter. Most likely you will find that your eggs are so lovely you will want to keep them long after Easter is over.

Conventionally Easter eggs symbolise new life - being representations of Christ's having risen from the dead, which is celebrated by the worldwide church on Easter Sunday. In the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, the eggs are dyed red for the blood of Christ shed on the Cross, and the hard shell of the egg symbolizes the sealed tomb — the cracking of which demonstrates His resurrection. The apostle Paul wrote: 'We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.' Romans 6:3-5.

1. First prepare your eggs

Either by piercing the egg both top and bottom with a darning needle or similarly blunt but pointed object. Then, by blowing the contents of the egg out of the larger hole at the bottom.

This is quite tiring and should only be attempted by an adult (see warning below).

Or by firmly breaking the egg open and discarding the contents (they could make a lovely Simnel cake).The two halves will need to be reassembled before proceeding.

(Another alternative is to use a commercial egg blower, which you may find if you use the search term Pysanky.)

Then, rinse out the emptied egg shells and leave to dry.

2. Cover the eggs with papier mâché

Using a paintbrush, coat the shells with PVA children's glue and lay strips of tissue paper on top. Seal with more PVA glue. (It would be easier to do this in stages, allowing the glue to dry between coating different parts of the egg.)

3. Now you can decorate your eggs  

Using bright paints you can decorate your eggs with all sorts of designs: stripes, spots, flowers, rabbits, chicks. Wherever your fancy takes you.

NB An adult should help with stage one and caution should be taken to avoid ingesting raw egg if the eggs are not known to be Salmonella free.