-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, March 11,1978 50 Oier gritzele By SALLY BAIR Staff Correspondent EPHRSTA - Oier Gritzele is an Eastertifhte folk tradition among Penn sylvania Germans. For the uninitiated, oier gritzele means egg scratching in the Pennsylvania German dialect, and refers to the art of scratching a design oirtp the surface of a dyed egg. ’ Mrs. Raymond Althouse, 35 East Queen Street, is currently teaching egg scratching in a craft class at the Landis Valley Farm Museum and she calls it “ordinary, the sort of thing peasants would do.” Perhaps peasants would have carried on the tradition, but the lovely eggs Evelyn Althouse creates are far from ordinary. They are truly works of art, and have been recognized as such. Early forms of egg scratching are displayed as “glyptic art” by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Glyptic art is the process of carving or engraving, especially on gems. Interest in egg scratching, or egg car ving as it is sometimes known, is reviving along with renewed interest in other early folk arts. If the enthusiasm and talent displayed in Mrs. Althouse’s class are any indication, the art will be around for a long time. Before the end of the two hour session, some very lovely scratched eggs had been created, and the class members till have three sessions to go. One reason Evelyn calls the art form “ordinary” is that it requires little in the way of tools. A dyed egg and an ordinary hat pin are all that are necessary to create a sample of the art. A few other simple items make the design easier to ac complish. If a border is to be used, Mrs. Althouse says a rubber band around the egg creates the right effect She suggests making a few dots along the edges of the band with a charcoal pencil, either white or black, and fill in the outline with a pin, . using “short back and forth strokes.” Any f remaining charcoal marks can be used for the scratching. Evelyn recalls, “I learned . with a razor blade and pin, but a small utility knife will do. You can use any tool The above two eggs were delicately scratched during a class on early Pennsylvania German egg scratching held at the Landis Valley Farm Museum by Evelyn Aithouse recently. Evelyn, who enjoys reviving this art, teaches one ,of her pupils (right) how to hold the egg to begin the' scratching. It takes a lot of concentration and close at tention to detail to do this craft. In the picture to the left, Evelyn stirs onion skins to make dyes while Mrs. James Lessley, Ephrata, to the right of the photo, is intent on scratching the design on the surface of her dyed egg. Easter custom comfortable for working. My mother used a paring knife.” The dyeing of the egg comes first, and the most common dye is onion skins. Evelyn points out that this is one of the non-poisonous dyes found in nature. To make her dye, Evelyn covers a quantity of , onion skins with water, using an enamel **pot for the actiiaT Cooking. She cOoks the skins for one to 1% hours, stirring oc . then strains the skins for an even dye. For a dark color, purple onion . skins can be used, and for a light orange color alum can be added to Jhe dye. Vinegar will bring out a dark red color on the finished egg. y - Evelyn saysthe dye should bejjooled to room temperature, with the egg£ also at room temperature. She then addstfae eggs,, one by one, and cooks them until hardf boiled: Chicken eggs should bis, cooked about % hour and duck or goose eggs about 45 minutes, she said. “The msidesofthe hard cookedegg will dry up eventually, and the shell will become paper thin,” Evelyn noted. One danger is that occasionally a hard cooked egg will explode from the ga&s which form while it is drying. For thfe reason, she said she prefers working with a blown egg, espcially if the decorated egg is to be sold. The bl&wn egg will maintain its rigid shell fora lifetime. Evelyn pointed out that goose eggs and duck eggs tend to have firmer shells than chicken eggs, so are a little easier to work with. “I use mostly blown ones, and to get an even dye, I fill the egg shell with the dye and it will sink to the bottom of the pan. Then I simmer the egg in the dye until it is the color I want.” There are many things in nature which make attractive, acceptable dyes for eggs Evelyn said that any dye which works with wool will also be effective with eggs. Examples of good dyes are: lettuce as it is ready to go to seed; green carrot tops, marigold flowers, logwood, sassafrass, osage orange, elderberries, the leaf of the . lily of the valley, meadow tea and tomato I vines. I N 0 T E S
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