A favorite of my grandmother, chocolate Easter eggs decorated with flowers were usually worked with icing or fondant over a roughened chocolate base, probably to better hold the icing in place I suspect. Once you have a suitable polymer clay egg, you can create the floral details by using very very tiny pieces of clay and placing them on the egg, then rebaking your decorated egg. If the surface is rough, the second coat of polymer clay will hold. If the surface is too smooth, you may need to use liquid polymer clay to 'glue' your decorations in place. Although you can add floral decoration before you bake the egg for the first time, it is very hard to press into the egg surface without changing the shape of your egg. If you want to attempt this, leave your eggs in a very cool spot, or the refrigerator, to stiffen up, (keep them well away from food!)before you try to add the floral details.
To Make Miniature Daffodils on a Miniature 'Chocolate' Egg from Polymer Clay>
The daffodil decoration shown here way beyond its actual size of half an inch, was made as follows:
- Roll out a very fine line of white plus translucent polymer clay.
- When the line is firm, cut across it at an angle with a sharp blade to make tear drop shaped petals, each daffodil will need five.
- Press the petals onto the roughened surface of the cured polymer clay egg using the end of a glass headed pin or an embossing tool. This will give the petals an indented or sculpted center. Leave the edges of the petals free to curl up slightly.
- Roll out the finest possible line of yellow polymer clay. Cut a tiny length (roughly 1/8 inch) and roll it into a small circle, place this in the center of your petal group and press it in place. Use the embossing tool or the end of a pin to pull this 'cup' forward for the center of the daffodil.
- Roll out thin lines of light green polymer clay for stems and press them into place below the flowers.
- Roll out a slightly wider line of polymer clay and cut across it at a high angle with a sharp clay blade to create a long tear drop shape.
- Press two or three of these leaves onto the egg, matching them to the base of the flower stems.
- Use the clay blade or embossing tool (or pin) to draw a vein line up along the center of the leaf, exposing a bit of the 'chocolate' egg below it.
- Bake the polymer clay egg at the correct temperature for your clay to set the 'flower' part of your design. Take care not to over bake the clay as these very thin layers can discolor quickly.
To wrap eggs with a band of ribbon, glue a length of ribbon securely to the base of the egg with a dot of glue. Leave to dry. Tie the ribbon at the tip of the egg and secure the base of the bow with glue. Soft stretchable ribbon works best for this wrap around the sides of the egg. I used fine silk ribbon here.
