Natural Easter Egg Dying

If you want to keep the kids busy on these days before Easter, think about dying Easter eggs using natural materials.  The children can harvest leaves and roots from plants outside in the yard and garden or they can rummage through the pantry and refrigerator.

Here are some well known colors and their sources:
pink - beet
yellow/brown - onion skin
blue or pink - sometimes from red cabbage
green - from many plant leaves
blue - blueberries

Onions, A Tried And True Dye Source

To make a dye bath place your plant materials in a pot with water.  Simmer gently until the water has taken on a strong color.  Add your eggs to simmer until they have taken on the color.

Onion Skins Simmering

You can get an interesting tie dye effect by wrapping your eggs in leaves, tying the leaves in place with string or rubber bands.  Place the wrapped eggs in simmering water for 1/2 hour.  Take out, cool, then unwrap.  This is always a fun process because you never know what the result will be.

Wrapped In Onion Skin

You can explain to your children that this is the way our ancestors dyed their yarn and cloth.  Add a little science and history to the mix.

The results of dying with plant materials are subtle, but I think very beautiful and worth the time and effort.

God bless,
Pam