Natural Dyes for the Perfect Easter Eggs

From the top Left clockwise: Yellow Onion Skin, Green Spinach, Turmeric & Saffron, Beet, Red Cabbage, Blueberry

Easter Eggs have seriously never been cooler than now. Eric Isaac with some tips.
By Eric Isaac


I used to decorate these little guys as a kid and got bored with stickers and crayons and such. But then I discovered making my own natural dyes which gives each egg its own earthy randomness. The process is simple, chop or shred color veg and fruit (the ones that usually bleed color) and add it to a pot. Add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar and water to top off. Throw in the eggs and boil. Reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes to reduce the liquid dye. Sift with a fine mesh sieve into a jar and now you have dye which you can add water to if needed. If you want less randomness and more uniform, solid colors, boil the eggs first then add to the dye.

Aside from cooking the eggs with the ingredients, you can also make sure some of the sediment makes it into the jar which will help create more uniform look. For example, the spinach didn’t yield great results on the boil. But putting the egg in the spinach dye overnight, got me a very cool earthy color and texture. The following are the results I got with the dyes. I’ll explain the process of each one under each image.

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From the top Left clockwise: Yellow Onion Skin, Green Spinach, Turmeric & Saffron, Beet, Red Cabbage, Blueberry
Yellow Onion Skins boiled with the eggs produce really great textures in the egg. If you leave the egg in longer, you'll get a much deeper and more uniform color
Egg Soaked in Spinach Dye with sediment overnight. Remove from dye and let dry. The sediment will dry on making a cool texture on the egg.

 

Egg boiled with Red Cabbage and then simmered with it for 30 minutes. For a stronger base color, allow to rest for a few hours in the red cabbage dye.

 

Red Beets soaked overnight in the dye

 

Turmeric & Saffron - soaked overnight in the dye

 

Blueberry, boiled with the blueberries, to give it that texture.
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  1. Fantastic post and gorgeous photos! We’re suffering through a wet and blustery week of school holidays leading up to Easter and my kids would love this project. Doing this TODAY!

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