Has anyone done Naturally Died Eggs?

[CariS]

I'd love to make these this year. I'd also love to be able to eat them (like
the idea of no waste) and to have the kids (4 yo and 2 yo) be a part of it.

I did some research and I think I need -
- yellow onion skins, red cabbage, vinegar, flowers, panty hose (or something to
keep flowers on),
What is ALUM? Sounds like the red cabbage needs that...

In terms of method - do I boil eggs THEN boil the color on? Is that what you
did?

I found this great blog but still have questions -

http://craftastica.blogspot.com/2007...dyed-eggs.html

Many thanks!

[ewe+lamb]

We get very pale coloured eggs, wrap them in onion skins and then either use an old pair of tights or some tin foil to hold the onions skins on and THEN boil them, it's abit of touch and go depending on how thick the onions and then the holding on material is but it works are they are beautiful and then the kids can use some water based pens to decorate more if they would like, and then we eat them - great fun!!

[Nani]

when I was a kid in Germany, we used to pick plants which could give an imprint on the eggs, then wrap them with gauze and string and boiled them in vinegar water....
I think I might try to find out from my grandmother how exactly we did that back then.... and I will post a gain in a few days when I have more info.
Thanks for the inspiration!

[Periwinkle]

Yes. We did onion skins last year but since we have brown eggs they didn't turn out very well... they were still brownish..just blotchier.

[serenbat]

ALUM is a "salt"- sort of like when you use SALT for tie-dying, in the baking section at the store, often used in cakes.

RED cabbage with vinegar makes a nice "light" blue, nice if you have very small eggs --like robin's eggs when they come out

IF you use white eggs and RED onion skins and only keep them in awhile you will get a different shade of brown than with YELLOW onion skins- brown eggs with onion skins make really dark eggs that are good for scratching design on after they are cooked.

some people also use carrot top + vinegar= light green

blueberry juice and vinegar=light pink

you can also use turmeric and beets