Repulse Bay (Apr 30/03) - Staff members at Tusarvik school in Repulse Bay introduced about 30 students to a colourful Easter tradition earlier this month.

Students in Grades 7 to 9 and teachers Ken and Lori-Ann Bond, Janey and Stan Meredyk and Brent Urie spent a couple of periods dressing up about 60 eggs for the holiday weekend.

Ken Bond says the school supplied the eggs and colouring agents, and the students supplied the creativity.

He says after seeing a number of Psanka (a Ukrainian decorated egg) images, the students became quite excited about the project while trying different combinations of colours and decorating methods.

"We showed them different techniques for dying the eggs, such as using oil and dye or wrapping the egg in elastic bands and then dying it to produce lines," says Bond.

"We premixed most of the dyes, but they enjoyed doing things like dying an egg orange, letting it dry, and then dipping it in a light blue."

The students also had sprinkles at their disposal to glue onto the eggs to give them a silver or gold appearance.

After a couple of false starts, each student produced two smartly dressed eggs to attend Easter festivities.

"We started by blowing the eggs out -- making a hole in one end of the egg and blowing the yolk and white out of the shell.

"That's usually how it's done, but, in our case, the eggs proved to be too fragile and the kids were breaking them.

"So, Janey (Meredyk) and Lori-Ann (Bond) got out the pots and boiled them during their planning period to have them ready for the kids next attempt."

Most of the students took their eggs home to meet friends and family members.

They also made origami boxes to transport the eggs.

Bond says as far as the students' eggs go, all he remembers is a swirl of colours.

He was, however, particularly impressed by one egg -- his own.

"The kids knew what they were doing, so I just concentrated mainly on dying my own egg.

"I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

"It has an aquamarine and yellow swirl with blue stripes and it reads Happy Easter.

"I couldn't leave it at the school, so I ended up taking it home with me."