By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

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Independent/Barrett Stinson Kaitlyn Worthington, 15, of Grand Island holds two beaded eggs created by her great-grandmother Ethel Moore. The eggs are covered with beads that were glued on each egg one at a time. Independent/Barrett Stinson A sampling of Ethel Moorešs beaded egg handiwork rests in the bottom of a basket at the Worthington home in Grand Island. Click Thumbnails to View

The Grand Island man said his grandmother, who lived to age 93, started making the eggs relatively late in her life, "when she no longer was able to crochet" or do other handiwork.

Worthington said his grandmother took beads from beaded purses and other items and then glued them onto the eggs, one by one.

He said she used a magnifier to help her glue the beads to the eggs, which had been hollowed out.

Although Worthington said his grandmother took up the pastime because her fingers no longer worked well enough to crochet, a look at the hundreds which look like thousands of beads on each egg makes it seem as though crocheting may have been an easier pastime.

Each Easter, he said, the eggs usually are taken out and hung on an "Easter tree," which is actually a jewelry tree.

The beaded Easter eggs are reflective of his grandmother's long life, Worthington said. She wrote a regular newspaper column for the Zanesville Times Record (in southeastern Ohio) that talked about things such as spring cleaning, when homes were heated with stoves fueled by wood, coal or some other source that was not clean burning.

As a result, spring cleaning involved taking out the carpets to shake them and beat them, he said. Cleaning also usually involved a man coming into the house and whitewashing the ceilings each spring.

Worthington said his grandmother also used to talk and write about the days when gifts to others consisted of items such as handmade wagons and handmade dolls.

Thus, making handmade beaded Easter eggs seems to fit in with her life and the newspaper columns she wrote that described a bygone era.

For a time, Worthington sold the eggs for his grandmother, who had worked at a number of occupations during her life.

But he also kept a number of eggs for himself. He pointed to one egg that is inscribed with the date, 1978, and noted that many of the eggs in his possession probably date to the 1970s.

Even after Easter is over, Worthington said, the eggs stay visible all year, resting in a glass basket inside a display case near the kitchen and dining room.

"There's no need to put something away where you can't see it," Worthington said.