Kate in Arabia Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Ok, so since we're not Christian and don't really do the cultural holiday stuff either (Christmas trees, Halloween, etc.), my kids have never done egg dying. Now, not wanting my kids to be culturally deprived, lol, I was thinking to do egg dying as our activity when studying early Russia this afternoon (about as close to Faberge eggs I'll ever come). Obviously, we don't have the cute little Paas egg dying kits, lol, so I was thinking to do what we did at home one year when I was young, which was to use onion skins (and whatever else I have around the house). I do remember how we did that, so I'm ok with that and I do have onion skins, lol. Now I'm looking for suggestions for other "natural" items we could try to dye eggs... I think we may have some frozen blueberries.. anything else? Any flowers from outside people have tried (we have lots blooming now here)? Kate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Not exactly natural, but my kids just painted eggs with their watercolor set. They came out really pretty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 Did you hard boil them, or just use the shells? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted April 17, 2008 Author Share Posted April 17, 2008 Hijacking the thread for a moment:Kate, do you have any suggestions for books set in a Muslim and/or Arab setting? I really recommend the translations of Denys Johnson-Davies. He is a well-respected translator (I believe he has translated some of Naguib Mahfouz's books, as a matter of fact), and has done a series of books for children translating classic Arab cultural stories. You can find a number of them (not all) from Amideast: https://www.amideast.org/pubs_one/author_list.aspx Scroll down to his name and they are listed there. I ordered from here myself, and the quality and all is quite good. I also have a few of the books that are listed by other authors. If you have a question about a particular book from there, let me know.. Edited to add: If you do an Amazon search you'll find more children's books he has done, but availability is sketchy.. Kate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorna Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 You will find lots of wonderful information about egg-dying at PercyTruffle's blog (who posts on this board too) and her wonderful Pysanky workshop post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carol in Cal. Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Two years ago I did this with blown brown eggs. I decorated them with bright sharpies, and the brown background muted the colors a lot. Then I strung them on pretty ribbon in coordinating colors, and laid the string out on a black table. Very effective! (BTW, the ribbon was knotted on each side of each egg to keep them spaced apart.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Sorry, I missed answering this post. Yes we did hard boil the eggs first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Lynx Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Beets! We've also used some kind of green, but I cannot remember what. Spinach, perhaps? The Pysanky eggs are great fun, if you want to get into that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percytruffle Posted April 17, 2008 Share Posted April 17, 2008 Some more natural dyes suggestions: turmeric: orange/yellow coffee or tea: brown roses: pink red cabbage: purple Here is a good site I found too: Naturally Dyed Easter Eggs Have fun! Let us know how it works out!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate in Arabia Posted April 21, 2008 Author Share Posted April 21, 2008 In case anyone is interested, we finally got around to dying our eggs, pics below. I have since read that petunias may be poisonous, so we will just throw those away and eat the remaining.. they didn't make the best color anyway.. we used marigolds, frozen cherries, red onion skins and purple petunias: Thankfully we only had one casualty (hence the gap in my deviled-egg plate. Nobody in my family but me likes deviled eggs, so I almost never get the chance to use it :( ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
percytruffle Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 They are beautiful eggs, Kate! I love the effect wrapping them with the dyeing material created rather than just boiling the material to make a dye bath and then dipping the eggs in it. Thanks for sharing your results :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mull-berry-ish Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Speaking of egg art ... check out Eggshell Magic. Check out her FAQ to see how she does it. Edit: Check out the silhouette of horses and her cut eggs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punkinelly Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 Blueberries will give you a sad gray color. Onion skins are the best! Turmeric gives you a lovely yellow. If you go to my dh's Flikr account, you can see the ones we did with an explanation of what foods were used. Scroll down to see the eggs. http://flickr.com/photos/jonswerens/page3/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Wisc Posted April 21, 2008 Share Posted April 21, 2008 http://www.hearthsong.com/hearthsong/product.do?section_id=0&bc=1005&pgc=781&cmvalue=HS|0|Normal%20Search%20Result|P1 Or you can just add food coloring http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/coloringeggs/l/bldeggsfc.htm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean in Newcastle Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Thank you for sharing, Kate. They look "good enough to eat"!:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angela in ohio Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 You will find lots of wonderful information about egg-dying at PercyTruffle's blog (who posts on this board too) and her wonderful Pysanky workshop post. We did pysanky eggs this year for the first time, and they are beautiful! I will never decorate eggs any other way again! :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lorna Posted April 22, 2008 Share Posted April 22, 2008 Beautiful eggs Kate. It is so nice to see the thread followed up with such a great post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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