Eggshell Crafts: How to Blow an Egg

Preserve the natural beauty of colored eggshells by learning how to blow an egg out of its shell and using that shell for eggshell crafts.

You just collected your first egg and it’s spectacular. You’re not really going to bash its shell on the counter, are you? Eggs can be preserved by blowing out the contents and cleaning them for years of enjoyment.

Looking for a fun craft project that makes a great gift? Decorate them for the holidays!

Egg blowing isn’t difficult, it just takes a little patience and practice. I don’t recommend practicing on a special or favorite egg as beginning attempts tend to result in breakage. The three basic steps to blowing an egg are:

Put hole(s) in egg
Empty contents
Clean inside of egg.

Using room temperature eggs makes emptying the egg much easier than with a cold egg.

How to Blow an Egg Out of its Shell

1. Poke Holes

To blow an egg’s contents out of the shell, two holes are ordinarily required, one in the narrow end and one on the wide end (where the air cell is located). There are many ways to get a hole in an egg. I have tried push pins, thumb tacks the Blas-fix® egg blower tool and a Dremel drill tool. The little tool that comes with the Blas-fix® egg blower was my preferred method until recently. The Blas-fix® egg blower is a commercially available product designed for the task it describes. It is available lots of places online for about $8.00. The little drill tool alone is worth the eight bucks.

3A friend shared with me an even faster, more precise tool than the The Blas-fix®: the Dremel, which has become my weapon of choice for hole execution. It is the most expensive of the options at $99, but I managed to talk my husband into buying one without much effort. He’s always game for power tools.

When blowing the egg out with lung power or an aspirator, two holes are needed. When using the Blas-fix® bellows, one hole is required. The center of the top and bottom ends of the egg should be marked with a small pencil dot, the holes are then made. The Blas-fix tool works by twisting the tool back and forth, filing tiny bits of shell off the shell until it breaks through the membrane.

2. Blow the Whites and Yolks Out

With the necessary hole(s) in place, egg blowing is made easier when the egg is scrambled. To scramble, use a toothpick, an open paperclip, a sterile syringe/needle or the needle end of the Blas-fix® egg blower, insert it into one of the holes and carefully stir to break up the yolk. Be careful not to make the hole in the egg any bigger or chip the egg when scrambling.

If you hoped for a video at this juncture, I’m sorry to disappoint; egg blowing with lung power is simply not a spectator sport. After the yolk is scrambled, air is blown into one hole with an open mouth. Cheeks should remain inflated like a trumpet player’s to maintain steady pressure. Chalza (white stringy anchor inside the egg) that clogs up the hole can be dislodged by pulling on it gently with a piece of paper towel. Oh yes, this process is glamorous.

If using the Blas-fix®, the uncovered needle is inserted into the hole and air pumped in with the bellows. The egg ideally streams out the very hole the needle occupies, but it doesn’t always work as one might hope. In my experience, the bellows wear out very quickly, eventually cracking, resulting in a lack of sufficient pressure to get the egg out of the shell. They work great at first but don’t last long enough. Calling on lung power or an aspirator is inevitable.
If using an aspirator, the open end is inserted over the hole and air squeezed in, forcing the egg contents out the other hole.

3. Clean Empty Eggshells

With the egg shell now empty, the inside must be cleaned. With the Blas-fix or a syringe & needle,water is injected inside one hole while holding a finger over the other. While holding the forefinger and thumb over the holes, the egg is shaken, then the water blown out of it. This step should be repeated until the water runs clear.

I like to dry out the eggs in the microwave to ensure sanitation. I heat them in 12 second intervals, four to six times. These eggs are hot when removed from the microwave oven (it’s easy to forget).

Eggshell Crafts Decorating Ideas

Eggshell Tree Ornaments

I made a Christmas Egg Tree and an Easter Egg tree last year. Dying blown Easter eggs can be made in the same way hard-cooked eggs are.

I use rub-ons or stickers from my local craft store. They’re easy to use and look pretty. The eggs are finished with a thin layer of decoupage, applied with a brush.

I seal the holes in my blown eggs with bead caps and crazy glue. Bead caps are inexpensive and available at craft stores.

To hang my blown eggs, I use either bead caps with ribbon , elastic string or, my preferred method: ornament caps. I buy miniature ornaments and pirate them for use on my decorated eggs. No glue is required to hold them in place as the pressure from the little wires is adequate to keep them from coming out of the egg.

Here are some of my favorite creations using blown eggs.