Acid Etched Brown Eggs

When dying eggs, I found that the normal store brand eggs didn't take dye well.  In my search for a solution, I read where organic eggs had not been treated with the same chemicals as the regular eggs.  The chemical treatments were what kept the dyes from taking properly.   As I went to buy the organic eggs I discovered that there was a national shortage of organic eggs.  Figures.

A friend of the family sells eggs produced on their farm, but it turned out that they only had brown eggs.  This led me to look into how to do pysanky with brown eggs.  One of the things I discovered was acid (vinegar) etching.  This weekend I finally had the time to try it.

Here is what I got:

You draw on the egg with wax, the same as you do a normal pysanka design.  Then, instead of dipping the egg in dye, you let it sit in the vinegar for a while.  The acid in the vinegar eats away the layers of the egg.  The longer it sits, the deeper into the shell you go, and it turns out that it gets whiter as you do deeper.

The last steps of the process involve varnishing the egg then emptying the yolk.  I am a little concerned about the strength of the shell as I puncture it.  We'll see how it goes.