Craft goldfish shaped eggs for Easter this year!

Goldfish swimming on air, 
hanging on the branches of
an egg tree.

       Use both traditional egg dyeing techniques combined with a cooking oil dyeing method to craft these unique gold fish for your Easter egg tree! I think these eggs will be some of the most stunning on our egg trees in the future!

       I also chose to use a color palette similar to the original in real living goldfish, however you may choose to use any color combinations you wish. These little marbled creations would look just as nice in blues, lavenders and pinks...

First Application: Dying the Easter Eggs Traditionally: you will need the following supplies: food dye, white vinegar, pot of boiling water, a variety of heavy mugs and paper towels.

1. Blow out your eggs by inserting a sterile tack or pin into both ends of the eggs. Use a small toothpick or skewer to slightly widen these holes and to also break-up the yolk sacks. 
2. Place your lips around one end of the egg, hold it over a bowl and blow through the hole until all of the contents come through the opposite end.
3. Boil these empty eggs in a pot of clean water over the stove to clean out the remaining contents of the eggs. 
4. Let the eggs dry and the water drain on to a paper towel before dying. I used three of brown eggs along with four white ones for my set of goldfish.
5. Make an ordinary dye bath using food color and a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar to set the dye. I started with orange and then let the eggs in that dye at varying degrees of time. 
6. I left two of the white eggs and one of the brown out of this first part of the process altogether, so that the modeling of white and brown might be more distinct in the second part of their dying.
   

These eggs have been dyed twice and have also had bits of black tissue paper glued to their
surfaces in places.

 

Second Application: Altering the egg dye further: you will need additional food dye, paper towels and some kind of cooking oil.

1. Pat dry all of the eggs before continuing with this second step.
2. Add two tablespoons of cooking oil to the surface of your egg dye, plus additional red color. 
3. Now roll all of the eggs across the surface of this dye. You may wish to limit how much contact the eggs have with the oil stained dye. I wanted my eggs to have a very distinct marbling as do many goldfish. 
4. I then added several drops of blue to the dye and rolled four of my eggs into this briefly. The effects were stunning but I still could not achieve a black spot where I wanted them. So I decided to add these to the egg surfaces using a black tissue paper at the end.
5. The white spotted surfaces on two of my eggs looked marvelous. These were the two that had not been dyed in the first bath at all, nor had I included them in the bath with blue dye in the end.

These goldfish are dyed, empty egg shells. Their tails are made using cupcake liners.

Third Application: Turning the eggs into goldfish or carp: you will need the following supplies: Styrofoam beads for barreleyes, tissue paper, black acrylic paint, white school glue and/or cupcake liners for the tails and fins (I chose to use cotton batting for the side fins. But it would be more consistent for young students to use cupcake liners for all of the fins and tails)

1. I ripped a small amount of black tissue and applied a few selected areas with a smear of white glue and tissue. 
2. I also did the same with a white tissue to a few of the brown eggs.
3. Then using an Exacto knife, I cut some large Styrofoam beads in half, and applied these on either side of each egg to mimic the barreleyes of goldfish. If you are working with a young child, the adult will need to cut the beads in half for the child because of the sharp blade. 
4. The white glue will hold the eye in place relatively well but the application must be aloud to dry in place until the adhesion is set. 
5. Next, glue on shredded tissues for fins on the sides and or bottoms of your goldfish. Some goldfish do not have fins on top or bottom, some of them do.
6. Applying the tail may prove to be a bit tricky. It is best to do so by gluing on an additional half bead at the place where the fish tail will be wrapped. Let the bead dry in place.
7. Then wrap the tail by removing the center of the cupcake liner and then twirling it about the side surface of the foam bead along with glue. 
8. An adult may choose to do the tail application for a child if this proves difficult. However, the end results are adorable!
9. I painted two of my goldfish tails; one black and the other copper.
10. Paint a black spot in the centers of each goldfish eyeball. 

I dyed a few of the goldfish black and copper.

Fish out of water belong on egg trees.

Goldfish have distinctive barreleyes made with Styrofoam beads and cotton batting.