There’s an endless list of things that I love about natural dyes. I love their imperfect nature and seeing how the colors vary from batch to batch. We’re naturally dyeing both real and wooden eggs this year, similar to the ones that we did last year but using new methods. These recipes are really forgiving so you can easily make adjustments and still have good results. Since the dyes are made with non-toxic natural food ingredients, hardboiled eggs are safe to consume after you are done coloring them, which helps to reduce food waste. I love using wood eggs too because you can keep them and use them for play year round.
(Updated Easter 2020 batch of wood eggs including madder root, osage orange, beet root, walnut hull and black tea. Also experimented with some overdyes):
A lot of the ingredients we used are ones that we already had at home, which is the beauty of making natural dyes. I’ll be using yellow and red onion skins, tea, coffee and turmeric. The depth of color that you achieve will vary depending on how concentrated your dye is, whether you use white or brown eggs and how long the eggs are soaked for. With natural dyes you will also need to leave your eggs submerged at least overnight, so keep that in mind when doing this with younger children who may be expecting instant results. ** Please use only food-grade dye color options if you are dyeing hardboiled eggs that you intend to consume **
Materials:
– hard boiled eggs and/or wooden eggs
– saucepan
– mesh strainer
– white vinegar
– glass jars (I used canning jars)
– spoons
– ingredients for desired colors (some suggestions below)
– turmeric (yellow)
– red onion skins (wine red)
– black tea (rusty brown)
– yellow onion skins (tan)
– coffee (brown)
Instructions to make natural dye:
turmeric dye – yellow
1 tbs turmeric + 2c water + 1 tbs white vinegar
Combine water and turmeric in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Stir in 1 tbsp vinegar per cup of water.
red onion skin dye – wine red
yellow onion skin dye – tan
1.5c onion skins + 2c water + 1tbs white vinegar
Combine water and onion skins in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Use a spoon to stir the onion skins into the water. Reduce heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes, or until the dye looks like it is a few shades darker than your desired color. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature. Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a large bowl and stir in 1 tbsp vinegar per cup of water.
black tea dye – rusty brown
a couple tea bags + 2c water + 1 tbs white vinegar
Bring your water to a boil. Reduce heat and steep tea bags for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature (I just leave the tea bags in and let them continue to steep). Remove the tea bags, strain out any loose tea and 1 tbsp vinegar. See this post for more information about dyeing with tea.
coffee dye – brown
Brew a cup or two of black coffee using twice the amount of beans you would normally. Let cool to room temperature and add a tablespoon of vinegar.
In the photo, white hard-boiled eggs are on the left and wood eggs are on the right
How to naturally dye eggs:
– Pour your cooled dyes into glass jars. I like to use ball or kerr canning jars. If you are using wooden eggs, lightly sand them before starting.
– Use a spoon to gently lower each egg into the dye. Make sure your eggs are completely submerged. If you are using wood eggs they will float to the top, so you’ll need to place a weight on top of them to keep them submerged.
– If you are using real eggs, transfer the jars to the refrigerator at this point. Wood eggs can be left out. Let the eggs soak in the dye for 12-24 hours overnight. The colors will be more saturated if you let them soak for longer. Rotate the eggs periodically to get even coloring. Every so many hours you can also let your kids check on them so they can see the color progression.
– After they are done soaking, remove them from the dye and let the, dry completely.
– If you are using wood eggs, you can lightly sand them once they are dry and seal them with a beeswax polish. If you are using real eggs, keep them refrigerated until you are ready to eat them (up to a week).
Amanda Jones says
Amaryllis and iris make lovely shades of purples and reds
* Edited to add: please only use food-grade dye options if you are dyeing hardboiled eggs that you intend to consume *
Barbara Haddon says
As does purple cabbage.
Woodlark says
Barbara- purple cabbage creates such lovely shades of blue! We have used that in previous years.
doug short says
Are there any issues with toxicity using amaryllis?
Amanda says
That’s an excellent question and one that I don’t know the answer to, unfortunately. So I probably should edit my comment as I wasn’t specifically considering food-grade dyes. Thank you, Doug, for pointing that out! As I think about it, it *may* depend on whether or not the dye bleeds through to the egg, but as I cannot say that definitively, I’ll see about editing my comment. Again, thank you for pointing that out!
Douglas Short says
Perhaps boiled beet water would be a good “red”? And for that matter yellow beets make excellent gold water.
Amanda Jones says
Great idea; thank you for a better/safer red option!
Woodlark says
Hi Douglas! Beet water or beet root creates a lovely pink shade, but won’t be quite red. I’d try a combination of the red and yellow onion for something that is closer to a true red. We just dyed a batch of wood eggs this year and madder root produced a lovely orange-red but it is not food safe and can not be used with hardboiled eggs.
Amanda Jones says
Yikes, I don’t see a way to edit my comment. Perhaps an admin can do that for me?
Woodlark says
Done! Thank you Amanda!
Amanda Jones says
Thank you kindly, Woodlark, for the proper edit.
Corinne says
I dyed a wooden egg today in red raspberry, but it now looks cracked. 🙁 I had placed it in the dye pot while the water was simmering for maybe 30min. It is a lovely pink, but I’m curious how long you left your wooden eggs in your dye and I assume you placed it in the dye that wasn’t heated. I’m wondering if the heated water was the problem.
Woodlark says
Hi Corinne,
I leave eggs submerged anywhere from 12-24 hours usually and when dyeing wood I do let the dye cool prior to submerging (as noted above in the tutorial). Good luck!
– Ashley