Smile, our good lady spring is here.
Spring is in the air, I am very happy about it, and so I thought I would re-post my natural egg-dying entry from last spring. I love the sun!
Easter is just around the corner, but well before Easter adopted the egg as it’s very own it was a Pagan symbol of rebirth, mother-nature, hope, new life, and bounty. I was reminded of Spring’s arrival last night when I came across a blind mama raccoon that needed our help. Crows were dive-bombing her while she was frantically weaving through traffic and bumping into trees…all to protect the newborn pup that she carried in her mouth. In honour of mama raccoon and her determination, the arrival of new little creatures and all that means Spring, I decided to get out the eggs and vegetables and have another go at playing with natural dyes.
1) Using a needle or a tiny drill bit, bore one tiny hole in each end of the egg.
2) Holding the egg over a bowl, blow on the hole at one end of the egg allowing the yoke/white to come through the other hole and into the bowl. (I always clean the eggs with soap and water first before making contact with my mouth).
3) Pick your natural matter for dyeing. Here is what I used: coffee (brown), yellow onion skins (gold), purple onion skins (deep brown), red cabbage (indigo), spinach (palest yellow), beets (pale pink), turmeric (bright yellow), rose-hip/hibiscus with cranberry tea (green-blue), raspberries (purple-blue). You will also need alum powder (found in the spice aisle at most supermarkets), and white vinegar. No cats were harmed/used to dye eggs in this project.
4) Chop up your dye of choice (for example with the red cabbage I used 2 chopped cups of cabbage), place in sauce pan. Cover with egg-deep water, and boil for 10 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of alum powder to the mixture. Alum makes the color pop. I didn’t add alum to the batch I did a few years back and they came out in really beautiful muted pastel shades (the pile on the right in the image below). Don’t add the alum to the yellow onion skin mix or the color will turn out more brown then gold.
5) Boil for another 20 or 30 minutes. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to help fix the dye. Don’t add too much vinegar, it weakens egg shells.
6) Add your eggs to the mix and let the eggs simmer for 10 minutes (you may need to flip them around every few minutes). Allow the eggs to remain in the mix while it cools. Once removed, quickly rinse off any ‘scum’ that gathered on the eggs, but don’t rub too hard or the dye will lift off. I let the eggs dry/drain by resting them in the cartons they came in. Dye will leak out as they sit and dry.
Garland: Once the eggs are dry thread a narrow ribbon or string through a long needle and string the eggs together. Watch out for cats.
I keep my egg garlands up all year round to instigate happy thoughts of nature and make myself dream of more Spring seasons and opportunities to come.
