Egg Dyeing Tips and Recipes Using Natural Plant Dyes

Are you looking for more natural egg dyeing tips or recipes this Easter? Just look in your back yard or even refrigerator! Natural plant dyes made from roots, nuts, flowers and berries have been used for ages before we had the unfriendly red dye number whatever.

Plus it is much more fun to experiment with a handful of red cabbage from your fridge than using chemically made dyes – kids love to be creative and they will love collecting these natural ingredients from your own yard or pantry.

Here are a few household and backyard natural egg dyeing recipes to try – Just boil your eggs in water with a bit of vinegar and one of these ingredients below, then let simmer for at least 15 minutes (The longer the egg soaks, the deeper the final color will be):

• Purple grape juice or blueberries (for lavender)
• Red cabbage (for blue)
• Spinach or Red Pine needles (for green)
• Carrot greens, Tumeric or lemon peels (for yellow)
• Coffee or black walnut shells (for brown)
• Yellow onion skins or carrots (for orange)
• Beets or cranberries (for pink)
• Crab apple bark or Rose hips (for red)

Dyeing tips:
• Before dyeing the eggs, draw shapes or pictures on them with crayons or a piece of wax. The wax won’t absorb the color so the designs will show through.

• Wrap the eggs in rubber bands to make tie-dyed eggs.

• Wash eggs in warm soapy water to remove oily residue that may impede color from adhering to the eggs.

• After dyeing – for a textured look, dab the still wet egg with a sponge.

• After the eggs are dry, you can rub the eggs with coconut oil to give them a soft sheen.

For a very extensive list of egg dying tips and recipes here is a great article on natural plant dyes from Pioneer Thinking.

These natural dyeing tips are more geared toward fabric dyeing but they will work just fine for egg dyeing as well – because after all I don’t think the Easter bunny had Paas egg dying kits a thousand years ago – he must have used a dash of Tumeric and a cluster of lavender, with some fresh bunches of red cabbage to make his best eggs.

If you’ve used natural dyes for dyeing your Easter eggs please share your favorite egg dyeing recipes we’d love hear what has worked for you.