Friday, April 17, 2009

Tie-Dyed

Project 365 - April 17

These are the eggs Jed and I dyed a couple of weeks ago. That's my childhood Easter basket they're reclining in. :)

I love dying eggs, especially since I learned how to tie-dye them. For those interested in trying this interesting technique, here it is:

Put one hard-boiled egg in a small colander and splash a little vinegar on it. Drip one or two drops of yellow liquid food coloring onto the egg and roll it around the perimeter of the colander to streak the color.

Let the color set for 30 seconds, then splash another bit of vinegar on the egg and drip one or two drops of another color, following the same procedure. It's best to limit the colors to three at the most, or they start looking muddy.

After the egg is to your liking, let the final color set 30 seconds and then do a quick rinse with water. [This will take some of the vividness of the color away, but not rinsing causes the color to pool on the bottom of the egg, which pretty much ruins that side.] Drain the eggs on a cooling rack with paper towels underneath and let dry.

If you don't like the way an egg turned out and it's relatively light-colored, you can go back and add more color. If the egg is dark, you can warm it up by covering it in yellow. I added a final yellow coating to pretty much every egg in the basket below...I dyed these a few years ago, before Jed had his own opinions about the way Easter eggs should look. :)

2 comments:

Jenny said...

Those are beautiful - some of the cheeriest eggs I've seen lately!

Azlina Abdul said...

So pretty! Nice work Sandi! :)