I recently found a box of Easter Eggs which I had decorated long ago in my salad days. Some were painted and with others I used a mixture of resist and scratching into the surface. But the egg I was most pleased to find was the dyed egg made in the traditional Northumbrian manner. It is illustrated here and I will tell you how it was made.
The technique is very simple. Layers of vegetable material are wrapped in a small parcel of cloth which is tied up, loosely with thread, string or wool and then boiled for 40 to 60 minutes. During this time the colour from the plant material should transfer to the egg. It may be that any small flowers which are held nearest the egg will act only as a resist or stencil effect. In any case the beauty is in the accidental design and this is what I like about the technique. Do not try this if you do not like the creative accident.
In the past the cloth wrapper might have been made from material which was dyed with non-fast colours and this would have added to the decorative possibilities. If you have similar material then go ahead and use it.
One of the problems with this technique is that it is quite hard nowadays to find a light coloured egg which will show the effect to advantage. It seems that all eggs are now designed to be brown as customers believe that this suggests health/quality. In fact I probably wouldn't use the onion skin medium unless I could find a white or very pale shelled egg. You can see here the red/orange colour you get with onion skins which doesn't show up clearly against the brown of the egg shell
I learned this method of dyeing eggs from my Granny. Eggs were sometimes rubbed very lightly with butter to enhance the colour effect.
What sort of plant material can you use? The traditional choice is onion skins as an envelope within which there can be seasonal flowers. In Northumberland this could be the yellow whinn. Some have said that spinach will give a green effect- but it did not work for me. You can also use old tea leaves or coffee grounds to colour the water. I used leather dye in the egg shown below. It was a recent experiment.
Coloring eggs at Easter is common throughout Europe. In some cases the folk designs are bold patterns but their symmetry is not for me.
When I made the old eggs I blew some of them-the painted ones- as some boys used to do when collecting eggs. The eggs which were boiled can survive with careful handling and will not smell unless they are broken . After a few years you will have a shell with a dried up egg rattling around inside it. Break the egg then and it will smell odd.
The technique is very simple. Layers of vegetable material are wrapped in a small parcel of cloth which is tied up, loosely with thread, string or wool and then boiled for 40 to 60 minutes. During this time the colour from the plant material should transfer to the egg. It may be that any small flowers which are held nearest the egg will act only as a resist or stencil effect. In any case the beauty is in the accidental design and this is what I like about the technique. Do not try this if you do not like the creative accident.
In the past the cloth wrapper might have been made from material which was dyed with non-fast colours and this would have added to the decorative possibilities. If you have similar material then go ahead and use it.
One of the problems with this technique is that it is quite hard nowadays to find a light coloured egg which will show the effect to advantage. It seems that all eggs are now designed to be brown as customers believe that this suggests health/quality. In fact I probably wouldn't use the onion skin medium unless I could find a white or very pale shelled egg. You can see here the red/orange colour you get with onion skins which doesn't show up clearly against the brown of the egg shell
I learned this method of dyeing eggs from my Granny. Eggs were sometimes rubbed very lightly with butter to enhance the colour effect.
What sort of plant material can you use? The traditional choice is onion skins as an envelope within which there can be seasonal flowers. In Northumberland this could be the yellow whinn. Some have said that spinach will give a green effect- but it did not work for me. You can also use old tea leaves or coffee grounds to colour the water. I used leather dye in the egg shown below. It was a recent experiment.
Coloring eggs at Easter is common throughout Europe. In some cases the folk designs are bold patterns but their symmetry is not for me.
When I made the old eggs I blew some of them-the painted ones- as some boys used to do when collecting eggs. The eggs which were boiled can survive with careful handling and will not smell unless they are broken . After a few years you will have a shell with a dried up egg rattling around inside it. Break the egg then and it will smell odd.
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