Natural Easter egg dye

I feel as though when it comes to dying eggs, yarn or fabric with everyday ingredients, the dye is raised to a level of legitimacy. When red cabbage dyes my tea towel that is sitting too close to the cutting board when I am cutting up it for a salad or a stir fry, I am annoyed by it’s colour. However, when I used red cabbage and white vinegar to dye white chicken eggs, my perception was completely different. I was intrigued at the colour it made, and excited by the results.

I chopped a whole red cabbage, covered it in water and added 4 Tablespoons of white vinegar, boiled it for an hour. Once I had placed the eggs in the pot, I put it back onto the stove and boiled it for another 10 minutes. I left the eggs in over night.

I was inspired by the account of the wonderful cyanotype artist whose account on Instagram is: Maritawaistudio . I used her recipe for the red cabbage, but I had trouble with the egg into the stocking, so my sweetheart suggested this other method which I am grateful for because I found it much easier for me to hold the little green leaf on. After the first one, when I have an egg tied, I hold the egg in my one hand and bring the nylon stocking over my hand holding the egg, then I can place my next egg holding it with my fingers through the stocking, place the little leaf- again holding it with the hand that is “inside” the stocking and then pull the stocking over my hand with the egg and tie it, then do it again until I am at the end of the stocking or I’ve run out of eggs.

I would like to show you with a video, but that doesn’t seem to load here. You can find it on my instagram account Greenhouse Hygge

Here is a link to “the reveal”. After I recorded this video, I decided that I had a little more time before the rest of the family descended for the annual easter egg hunt. So I poured the dye back into the pot ( it was less than before because I poured some down the sink before thinking that I would want to keep it), I added enough water to cover the eggs and because I had added water I added about another tablespoon of vinegar. I boiled it for a few minutes and then took a look into the pot. To my surprise rather than be much darker…it was a lot lighter! Initially I was disappointed because I had ruined a good thing…but then I took off the little stockings and leaves and was left with a result I was quite happy with in relation to the other darker eggs.