Natural Egg Dyes

Easter is coming and in our house, that means lots of crafts and egg dying.

Instead of using food coloring, we use natural dyes. Natural dyes can be fun to use on paper, cloth and many other mediums.  One of the best parts of using a natural dye is experimenting to see what color different materials produce.  You can use a multitude of items to produce natural dyes.  Vegetable peels, sticks, nut shells, berries, teas and herbs all work great.

Make sure you use ripe or mature fruit/plants.  They have the highest amount of natural dye.  Slightly past-prime berries also work great.

First, hard boil your eggs and refrigerate.  To create a dye, finely grate or chop your material.  In a pot, add dye material and enough water to come one inch above the material.  Boil.  The longer you boil, the more vibrant the color. Teas and coffees can be steeped regularly, reducing water for richer dye.  Berries can be mashed or juiced and used fresh if desired. You will then want to strain your dye.  If you like a textured look, you can use the dye unstrained.  Add 2-3 teaspoons of vinegar for every cup of strained dye or juice.  You may choose to add water to highly concentrated dyes.

Pour the dye into a container that will allow an egg to be completely submerged in the dye.  Canning jars work great for this and also allow you to easily see how colorful your egg is without completely removing it.  Carefully lower the eggs into the hot dye.  Allow to set until desired color is reached.  If you plan to let them set for many hours or overnight, be sure to put them into the refrigerator.  You can mix the dyes to create more colors.

Some items you might want to try:

Red/Pink

• Juice from canned beets
• Canned cherries with syrup
• Raspberries
• Lots of red onion skins

Yellow

• Turmeric
• Lemon and orange peels
• Celery seed
• Cumin
• Green tea
• Carrot tops

Blue

• Purple grape juice
• Red cabbage leaves
• Blueberries

Orange

• Yellow onion skin
• Chili powder
• Paprika
• Carrot peels

Purple

• Red zinger tea
• Red wine
• Small amount of red onion skins

Green

• Spinach leaves

Brown

• Coffee

Melissa is the mother of two crafty little girls.  She blogs their creative messes at HopeSprouts.

photo by Andrea.Pacheco

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