Decorating Easter Eggs with natural dyes
What you will need:
Eggs – as many as you want to decorate
Dye Ingredients:
- 1 red cabbage
- 3 beetroot
- 1 litre of water per saucepan
- 1 tablespoon of salt per saucepan
- 1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar per saucepan
(Other dyes can be made using onion skins, turmeric, parsley, berries)
- Lemon juice (optional)
Use same method for each ingredient in separate pans
- Roughly chop your red cabbage and add to a pan with water vinegar and salt
- Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, then remove from the heat
- Allow the vegetables to steep in the water whilst it cools
- Strain, reserving the liquid for dyeing
- Cut tights into sections big enough to cover an egg
- Pre-boil your eggs
- Collect small leaves and flowers for your egg decorations
- Wet one side of leaves / flowers and place on egg
- Wrap egg carefully in tights and tie with string
- Place eggs in dye and soak for a few hours
- Dry eggs on a wire cooling rack for 30 minutes to 1 hour
- Unwrap your eggs, remove leaves / flowers and polish with a little olive oil or butter
- An additional decoration technique is to use lemon juice on dyed egg to remove areas of dye. Create a pattern using a paint brush or cotton bud