How to Color Easter Eggs with Natural Dyes
Color Easter eggs with natural dyes — such as beets, onion skins and blueberries — for lovely, subtle Easter egg colors.
February/March 2010
By Rosalind Creasy
 |
These beautiful Easter eggs are colored with dyes made from beets, onions and blueberries.
ROSALIND CREASY
|
When Alex, my 10-year-old grandson, came to stay with me during spring break, he was eager to color Easter eggs. Also, I hadn’t seen Jody Main, my friend and an Easter egg maven, for far too long — what a perfect excuse for a visit!
RELATED CONTENT
If your hair color is looking a little tarnished, color your hair with one of these natural hair co...
Using the sun to color cloth, wool, yarn for decoration and entertainment....
You can add an artistic touch to your cordwood construction walls with the inclusion of colored bot...
Green products are environmentally friendly and starting to be marketed by major corporations, do t...
When we entered Jody’s farmhouse kitchen, there was a table with teacups full of dyes and a big bowl of eggs ready to go. Alex and I had great fun, and we learned a lot that afternoon about colors and which combinations produce which colors. We went home with cartons full of unique eggs.
After years of dyeing eggs using a wide range of botanical sources, Jody had streamlined the dyeing procedure. She had narrowed the necessary ingredients down to three — fresh red beets, yellow onionskins and frozen blueberries. That’s all she needed to produce the primary colors: red, yellow and blue. By combining the resulting dyes in varying amounts, she can create any color of the rainbow. You can do it, too!
Dyeing and Decorating Tips
Follow the recipes below to make the dyes, using individual stainless steel, glass or enamel saucepans for each color. Combine the ingredients and boil each color mixture separately for 15 minutes before dyeing eggs. The vinegar acts as a fixative — without it, the dyes won’t stick to the eggs.
- Before dyeing, hard boil white eggs and let them cool.
- For uniform color, strain each dye mixture through cheesecloth or a fine strainer.
- For a mottled, tie-dyed or spotty effect, leave all the ingredients in the pans.
- Use crayons to make designs — circles, geometrics, your name — on the egg; the crayoned part will not take up any dye. White crayons work especially well.
- The longer the eggs remain in the dye, the deeper the color.
- For special effects, dip half the egg in one color, the other half in another.