Saturday, January 24, 2009

Dragon Eggs

I suppose since the paper dragon is so slow going, we have to create space for other dragons in our lives. Last week on my friend's blog, I saw these Dragon Eggs. I was immediately reminded that I saw this project last spring and wanted to do it again come winter. Lo and behold, it is now winter and was -25° with the windchill, so perfect weather for sticking something outside to freeze. I also traced this project back and back until I found the original source.

So we sprang for food coloring at the corner store (and candy bars to be able to pay with my card! So much for not spending money!).I didn't have to buy balloons, however, because I remembered that our neighbor left a whole package here from when he made his Grapes of Wrath costume on Halloween. It's important to put the food coloring in first, as opening the tip of a balloon filled with water will simply result in water all over.
We originally cut them a little early. At first I thought the 25 below would work, but I think our freezer might have done better, or at least faster.
We made them a couple of different times in order to completely line our walk. We didn't use water balloons, and that might have made quite the difference regarding the outcome. The original examples of these were much brighter than ours turned out, though I used more than the one drop of food coloring recommended in the original tutorial and our food coloring brands appeared to be the same. At one point, Bastian threw them all in snow drifts. I dug them out, being all particular about how they were arranged so the guests coming to our Art Day could see them.
The neighbor's pug loved to bat them around and sniff them. I wondered what they smelled like. Petro-chemicals from the dye? My skin from touching them? Chlorine from the tap water? Who knows!

1 comment:

Lynnie said...

Ooooooh, I wonder when they'll hatch?