How do you fix a weeping egg?

Answer 1

How do you fix a weeping egg? Empty Dyed Eggshells: If the egg has already been blown out, but has not yet been varnished or coated entirely with beeswax, try this: # Turn the egg hole-down, place a twist of tissue inside to wick away the moisture, and let it drain for several hours. # Remove the tissue and let the egg dry out COMPLETELY for about a week. # Cap the hole with wax, and dunk the egg back into the final dye color until it looks right. Sometimes this requires double-dipping, and in rare cases even requires a Simple Green wash and more dyeing. It doesn't usually matter if some dye gets into the egg at this point, and even if you seal the hole well with wax, dye will seep inside anyway through the pores. Just be sure to wick it out immediately with a tissue, before it has time to work its way back out through the pores of the shell. Watch closely -- you want to leave the tissue in long enough to drain out the moisture, but not long enough to dry out. If any kind of seal forms, either from a dry tissue, or from leaving in the wax plug, or from the flap of membrane closing over, or even from liquid collecting near the hole, then the gas inside the egg will force excess liquid out through the pores and ruin the dye on the shell. # Dry the egg out for a day before melting off the wax; even a little bit of residual fluid will come out through the pores if the egg is heated too soon. If you do get seepage through the pores in the shell, you can repeat the above process and be more careful. Full Eggs: If you are working with a full egg, weeping through the shell is usually due to the breakdown of the inner membrane of the egg. This membrane normally keeps the white and yolk intact inside the shell. As the egg and its contents age, this membrane can sometimes break down, resulting in amber-colored excrescences forming on the shell of the egg. If you notice these small excrescences beforestarting a pysanka, throw the egg out. It is almost always rotten. If you have already invested time and effort into an egg, it can still be saved if you haven't removed the wax yet. Stop, blow out the egg, and rinse it out throroughly. The contents will be quite foul. (One word: Febreeze.) Let the egg dry out properly (at least overnight), and then plug the hole(s) with a bit of wax, and re-acidify (vinegar rinse) and re-dye the egg. With luck, this should solve your problem. If you're removing the wax when you notice the excrescences, oh, well.....not much to be done. If your pysanka doesn't look too bad, empty it before varnishing, as these lumps can form under the varnish as well and make your egg look even worse.