When Bunnies Lay Eggs | American Easter (Decorative Art)

Intro: When Bunnies Lay Eggs | American Easter (Decorative Art)

Happy Easter, America. A Google search of "do bunnies lay eggs" yields +71,000 results and it seems like Americans only laughs it off when children think that bunnies lay Easter eggs. Educating them that this is incorrect would give us adults one fewer thing to chuckle about - apparently. I've created a bunny nest complete with bunny eggs to illustrate what happens in nature when you don't care to learn for yourself or teach your children how the world works.

STEP 1: Materials

The basic set of materials are listed below. I chose to work with all natural materials because this is, after all, what [too] many Americas believe is real nature.

- Wooden eggs (about bunny sized)
- Rabbit hides
- A stick wreath
- A collection of dyed grass and plant material
- A bit of dried flowers
- Hemp twine

Equipment:
- Leatherworking needles
- Leather thread (a specific type of wax coated heavyweight polyester)
- A straight blade (x-acto/boxcutter type knife)
- Scissors
- Scrap paper
- Pencil
- Awl
- Clips
- Rulers
- [masking] tape
- Tweezers
- Thimble

For the embroidered ribbon
- Ribbon
- Embroidery needles
- Embroidery floss
- Carbon paper

STEP 2: Create the Egg Pattern

- Measure the egg at the widest part
- Measure a piece of paper taller than the egg and as wide as the egg. Divide the paper into sixths and mark with lines the full height of the paper (and egg).
- Wrap the paper around the egg and secure with tape.
- Cut the paper along the lines.
- Place a ruler through the slits and mark straight lines along the bottom of the egg. Draw a line. Repeat until the bottom has been marked into 6 sections.
- Do the same to the top.
- Mark the 1/6th placement at the widest part of the egg.
- Remove the paper and connect the marks at the top through the marks at the widest part and to the marks on the bottom.
- Tape a bit of paper to the egg and trim away everything the lands outside of the pencil marks on the egg. It is a bit tricky to get right but the pattern will be trued so just try to get it close.

To true the pattern:
- Trace the cut piece onto paper.
- Fold the paper in half based on the top and bottom point.
- Create a nice, smooth curve based on the choppy uneven line from the original pattern.  If the lines from each half of the pattern piece don't match up, split the difference.

STEP 3: Cutting Fur

When working with real or faux fur, DO NOT USE SCISSORS TO CUT THE FUR. If you do so, it will result in a choppy, ugly haircut of the hair.

- Mark your pattern piece on the back of the fur. Fur is directional (meaning: it has a nap) so you want all of the pieces to lay in the same direction.
- While holding the fur up and away from any surface, use a straight blade to cut the skin.
- After all the pieces are cut, lay them out in an order so any color variations blend.

STEP 4: Sewing Fur

You should avoid using pins when sewing fur or leather so you don't put excessive holes in the skin. Also, you will need a thimble and pliers to sew through animal hide. Use the thimble to push half the length of the needle though the skin and the pliers to pull the needle all remaining way (the eye of the needle can cause the needle to hang which can be difficult to pull with your fingers alone).

- Align the pieces you wish to sew together.
- Tuck the fur between the layers with the awl. Use the clips to hold everything in place.
- Sew all 6 of the pieces together at the very top using a whip stitch. Sew from the top point to about 1 inch down each seam. This sets everything so the pieces will lay evenly when completed.
- Sew each seam (except the very last one).
- Insert the wooden egg. This can be a little tricky because the skin grabs the surface and doesn't slide. It is best to try to "roll" the skin onto the egg as opposed to sliding the egg into the skin.
- Sew the remaining seam closed with a curved needle. Do your best to prevent the fur near the stitch to be caught under the thread.

Once the sewing is complete, use an awl to "pick the seams" by pulling any fur caught in the seam to the outside. When this is done, the seams are nearly invisible.

Do this two more times to make a nest of three bunny eggs.

STEP 5: Creating the Nest

A pair of tweezers can be extremely helpful for the following steps.

- Starting with the most prevalent grass in your nature bundle, trim the ends down to 3-4 inches below the seeds.
- Insert the ends into the stick wreath, working in a circle.
- If needed, add a wrap of hemp cord to help hold all the ends in place.
- Working in a circle to keep an even distribution, add all the vegetation
- Add a few sprigs or dried flowers for a color accent.

STEP 6: A Name Tag

I thought it would be helpful to attach a name to the piece and did so with an embroidered ribbon.

- Find a font or write with your own handwriting the words you wish to embroider on a piece of paper (a sample).
- Place the carbon transfer paper between the paper sample and the ribbon (carbon side facing the ribbon).
- Trace the words on the paper sample with the pencil.
- Trace the letters on the ribbon with stitches of embroidery floss. I used a row of simple stitches to complete my label.

STEP 7: Completed Nest

Here is the completed project. Three fur covered bunny eggs in a basket of spring prairie greens.

Comments

[grannyjones]

Still lovely, cute and cuddly! Animals raised for meat and fur live a life of ease and plenty--much nicer than in the wild, eaten alive by predators.

[emilybergslien]

Can't help but think of the fur teacup! Wonderful and just the right amount of cringey.

[moonlitdancer]

I'm sorry but I don't know one single parent in America that teaches their children that bunnies lay eggs! Kids in America tend to get chocolate in plastic eggs or chocolate bunnies and no I don't mean real bunnies so please don't go dipping baby bunnies in chocolate for your next "project"! This assumption you have made is insulting and ignorant! This project is gross there is nothing cute about using dead bunny skins and turning them into egg like things!

[antibromide]

The inspiration for this came to me when I was visiting my grandparents in northwestern Indiana. I was at a Hobby Lobby craft store and overheard 2 women in their mid-twenties who were there to purchase supplies for a Sunday school class discussing whether or not bunnies laid eggs. Two women, in their 20's, teaching a class to kids, and after a bit of back-and-forth discussion concluded that yes, bunnies lay eggs.

The Cadbury company and their yearly ads that say bunnies bring eggs (while clucking like a chicken) See: http://youtu.be/Eu8XDWG6x2k and more recent ads: http://youtu.be/Z4tCZuZbD2U
And ads like this Kmart ad which introduce a Lamb-bit as a real animal: http://youtu.be/kDnahJ_YOAk

There are constant studies and articles about how much time kids are spending in front of the TV. How much of what children believe to be truth comes from these commercials?

[moonlitdancer]

So you heard two ignorant women in Indiana talking and from that you assumed that all or most of American parents teach their children that Rabbits lay eggs???? Were these women parents even???
Please how gullible are you? You really aren't giving children enough credit! Do you think they think that bears use toilet paper and cereal talks as well???
How about you actually TALK to some children and parents instead of making such an insulting assumption?

[antibromide]

Kids learn from the adults around them. When they hear their parents say one thing (assuming their parent's DO teach them things - which not all parents do) and something different from another authority figure (like a teacher) they have to decide for themselves which is the "truth". If kids hear from their [Sunday school] teachers that bunnies lay eggs and they see bunnies with eggs on the TV, the TV gives a visual back-up to what the teachers said even if it isn't true. The chances of most kids/people seeing a bunny giving birth to a litter of live babies in person in their lifetime is extremely unlikely.

To expand on the idea that "everyone knows basic facts" is a false assumption on your part, watch this video from Jamie Oliver's TV show which shows high school aged kids saying that butter comes from corn, corndogs grow on plants (cattails), cheese comes from macaroni, and honey comes from bears. Skip to 0:52 to see what I am referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCPssmcizPQ

Some parents do teach their children, but a lot of people (like those 2 women teaching Sunday school who may eventually have their own children) pass down "knowledge" that is not true but they don't know it is not true. That is more common and more dangerous and that is what this art piece is referring to. This art piece references one part of commonly accepted ignorance but it is barely a drop in the bucket for the things I see and hear around me on a daily basis.

[moonlitdancer]

You must live in a very ignorant part of the country! Personally I live in Jersey and there aren't any parents or teachers around me that are teaching kids that bunnies lay eggs. One does not need to see a rabbit give birth to baby bunnies to know that this is fact.
I stand by my belief that most people and children do know that Rabbits do NOT lay eggs and most people including children realize that the "Easter Bunny" is a fantasy not a reality!
This may be a commonly accepted ignorance in your town but it is NOT common or accepted in most American homes!
Taking the ignorance of a few and labeling a whole country by it is in itself very ignorant!

[grannyjones]

It was an accident--He was positively SICK!

[grannyjones]

So much nicer and sweeter than the nest of babies my hubby ran over with the riding mower!

[sunshiine]

These are adorable! It looked like real bunnies! Thanks for sharing your hard work!

[poofrabbit]

I can't stop laughing this is so cute! Well done!

[antibromide]

Thank you!

[joconnelly]

These "cute" "eggs" are made from real, dead bunnies. This is not cute. How are you going to explain to the children that rather than the eggs hatching into bunnies, you killed some real ones to make them?

Why not use fake fur?

[antibromide]

This was an art piece to make a statement about what we are not teaching our children in America - and these are not supposed to be cute. The rabbit was eaten and the skin processed. To use faux fur would blur the message. Using faux fur would contribute to the depleation of our oil reserves and that seems quite wasteful when I can use the hide from an animal raised to be a food source - a hide that otherwise would have been discarded as garbage.

[matthewbate]

Surely these are dead rabbits?

[NaturalCrafter]

I used to buy plastic Easter eggs for my kids so I can't say anything myself when it comes to whats natural and what's not....lol At first I thought they were baby bunnies snuggling in a nest. Great conversation piece.

[canida]

Wow, these are awesome! Not sure how I missed them first pass...

[antibromide]

Haha, I thought you would find these appealing. :)

[canida]

Well, I'm following your projects now so I don't miss anything else. :D