Natural Egg Dyes

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Spring is here and it’s time to surround ourselves with signs of fertility. Dyeing eggs is a fun way to get the family together to express themselves creatively. Making your own dyes from ingredients already in your kitchen is much more satisfying than dropping a couple of tablets into a cup, so give it a whirl. There are two ways to get fabulous eggs: Boiling the color on and cold dipping.

Boiling

Place 6-8 raw eggs in a single layer in a large pot and add enough water to cover by one inch. Add some white vinegar (2 tablespoons per quart of water). Add dye ingredients (1 cup of vegetable solids per cup of water, 1 tablespoon of spices per cup of water, or substitute liquid ingredients for water) and bring to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes. The motion of the eggs in the boiling water ensures that the color will be even on the egg. The resulting egg will be very hard-boiled and inedible, as it picks up the flavor of the dye.

Cold Dipping

In a saucepan, add dye ingredients and cover at least 1 inch with water. Bring the water just to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer about 15 minutes to an hour until you like the color. Remove the pan from the heat.

Strain and pour the mixture into a bowl or jar that is deep enough to completely cover the eggs you want to dye. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons of white vinegar for each cup of liquid. Add the eggs and leave them until you like the color. You may want to leave them in for several hours or overnight for deeper color. If you choose to do so, be sure to do it in the refrigerator to keep them edible.

Remove your eggs with a slotted spoon and dry in the empty egg cartons or paper towels.

Don’t forget the crayon trick and decorate your eggs before you dye them. Or use stickers to keep certain shapes white. You can also dab the wet eggs with a sponge for a textured look or wrap with thin rubber bands for a tie-dyed look. To make them shiny, rub some vegetable oil on them after they’re dry.

Here are some things to try out. Mix and match, it’s a science project too!