There are many ways to decorate ostrich eggs. The tradition of decorating eggs exists in many cultures. It is often associated with the holiday of Easter, although the roots of this custom are much more ancient, going back to the festival of the vernal equinox: in Slavic peoples it is Velikden, the inhabitants of Western European countries – Ostara, etc. Usually chicken eggs are taken, but ostrich eggs look much more original and interesting.
Traditional painting
This option is the most familiar. To work you will need fine brushes and paints. If the eggs after decoration are not planned to be used for food, it is better to buy acrylic paints for painting, if it is planned – food dyes. As for the patterns, most often national patterns and motifs are used in painting: vegetable, geometric. After finishing the painting, the egg must dry.
Wax painting
The main advantage of this technique is environmental friendliness, as the wax does not penetrate through the shell. And, therefore, such an egg can be eaten without any fear. The technique consists of the following: the wax is melted in an iron vessel, and then the copper wire is applied on the egg. It is important to do the work quickly so that the wax does not harden.

Decoupage eggs
This technique will look great on ostrich eggs because of their large size. The technique consists of transferring an image from a napkin or paper to the surface. To work you will need: napkins with the desired pattern, foil, PVA glue, acrylic primer, brushes and polyurethane varnish. The process goes like this:
The egg is coated with acrylic primer. Necessary parts are cut out of the napkin, placed on the foil back side up and generously smeared with glue. The glue-covered pattern is attached to the completely dried egg surface, then the foil is removed. On top of the napkin should also be abundantly smeared with glue. When all the necessary parts are glued, leave the egg until it is completely dry. On average, it takes 7-8 hours. After the egg is completely dry, varnish the whole surface.
Now the handicraft is finished.
Carving an ostrich egg
Ostrich egg, hand work. Carving with a special wood carving machine
The most time-consuming way to decorate an egg, requiring skill and dexterity. Unlike other methods, it is impossible to do this with chicken eggs, as their shell is too thin. The tool for the work will serve as an electric machine for wood carving.
If you want, you can try each of these methods and compare the results.
Decorating an ostrich egg shell
You can use for decorating the molding. For the basis of work we take a velvety plastic. In principle, you can replace it with cold porcelain, this material is easier to find.
For the work we will need:
- Ostrich egg shell.
- Velvety plastic.
- White beads. In my case, natural pearl.
- Tools for modeling.
- Instant quick-setting glue.
- A very soft pencil.
- A lens from a magnifying glass.
- Bakeable plastic white.
Before you start work, think about how you will store the handicraft in the process of creation. It is better to take a bowl or a tray lined with synthetic material. This way the shell will not roll away and get damaged.
So, let’s begin. It is desirable to have a calm mood, do not rush and remember that in the hands of a rather fragile object. With a very soft pencil we make a preliminary marking. There is no need to make a complete sketch. It is only necessary to outline the overall picture, to observe symmetry.
Each shell has a hole. It should be beautifully closed. Velvety plastic is not suitable. You can use ordinary baked plastic. Bake a small spherical element on the lens.
After it cools, glue it to the egg with seconds glue. For working with it, forced ventilation or just a well-ventilated room is desirable.
To decorate the shell, we use the simplest elements. Droplets, balls, spirals, string. Different in size and shape they create a beautiful pattern.
Velvety plastic is not molded to the shell. The beginning of the work is very difficult, all the elements need to be carefully pinned with glue.
After completing part of the pattern, be sure to wait for the plastic to set, otherwise there is a risk of crumpling what has already been done. Continue to build up the decor.
In order to later glue the beads, it is necessary to press a few balls in advance with a medium ball stack. Glue better when the material is half dried. Glue with the same second glue.
Continue to decorate the shell with new elements. It is necessary to pay attention to lay everything as symmetrically as possible.
Velvety plastic glues itself easily, if necessary a little wetting. Glue only to the shell. To build up small elements, when there is a basic skeleton of work, is already much easier
The result of the work between the stages of modeling dry and put away in a bowl with synthetic fibers.
It turns out quite an original product. A little patience and imagination, and your home will decorate such a thing.
You can put it on a ring from the eaves. You can put it on a soft felt pad. Finished product can be tinted by the method of semi-dry brush. Decorate with polymer in different colors. The decor itself can be done not symmetrically and create something of your own, unique and inimitable.
Decoupage on an ostrich egg
As with any decoupage you will need:
- Tissue
- White and color acrylic paints
- PVA glue
- Outlines (if needed)
- Acrylic varnish
- Optional: cardboard, glue and putty
Tools:
- Synthetic flat brush #12 and brushes to draw details
- Scissors
When decoupage on an ostrich egg, three main problems must be solved:
- puncture holes on the egg itself
- the spherical surface, inconvenient for gluing an image
- the spherical shape again makes painting and drying more difficult.
So, the holes are quite large, so it is not easy to glue, so that the putty was strong enough and unnoticeable, we act as follows:
We take a circle of dense cardboard slightly larger in diameter than the hole, pierce it with a needle with thread, the edges around the circumference are smeared with glue-moment and our “cork” in a slightly bent form is carefully pushed inward and straightened out. Then pull the thread (you can even hang an egg from it for a capital glue grip). In 10 minutes you can cut the thread, putty the hole, after drying sand it, do the same with the second hole and you can prime our egg with white paint!
To solve the third problem mentioned above, we will use the glass as a support, turning the egg over as it dries.
As for the second problem, the decoupage card is not suitable for gluing on such surfaces, it wrinkles very much at the edges!
Tissue is good at stretching and laying without folds, but you need to cut out the pattern in fragments, it is impossible to cover the entire surface with one tissue. Then we are going to trace the details, hide the transitions and even out the colors. At the end we add contours and cover with acrylic varnish. You can also make and decorate a stand for the egg, for example, from wood.