Easter is this Sunday.  This year I’ve been pretty lazy about decorating the house, until this week.  Finally, the boys and I decorated about one and a half dozen eggs.  It was so fun.

All the egg painting activities reminded me of Cloisonne Eggs that my parents had in our house for decorations growing up.  They are not for Easter though, just for everyday decorations.  They look very similar to the Russian enamel eggs, but mostly with traditional Chinese designs such as flowers, birds, etc.

Chinese Cloisonne is one of the oldest kind of artwork made of red copper roughcast and decorated colorful glaze. It was well known in the time of Jingtai of Ming Dynasty (1450–1456) for the most exquisite production.  Chinese Cloisonne is also called “Enamel with copper roughcast and inlayed copper wire” abbreviated for Enamel and usually called cloisonne.  The ancient “Cloisonne Technique” is a unique procedure of hand painted and applied brass wire and enamel. This technique is associated most often with Chinese beads and with Fabrege eggs.

Anyhow, these eggs are beautiful.  I would love to find them from my parent’s house, why not give a little Chinese twist to Easter.  You can also find these mini ornaments from Smithsonian Stores as well!