Homemade egg dyes blend art and science at Stony Creek class
Find natural ingredients in your kitchen
With Easter just a couple of weeks away, many families are planning to engage in the longtime tradition of dying hard boiled eggs.
An April 2 class held at Stony Creek Metropark taught children and adults alike how to make festive Easter egg dyes from natural items like vegetables, fruits and spices. Eastern District Interpretive Services Supervisor Erin Parker has been creating natural dyes for more than five years and says one of the perks is that the ingredients can be found right in your kitchen.
“This morning we used some purple cabbage, onion skin, and turmeric; we used all the things that everyone has on hand,” said Parker.
Making colorful dyes from produce and spices adds a science experiment aspect to a creative art project. To create the dyes, the fruits, vegetables or spices are boiled, the water drained and a bit of vinegar added. A rule of thumb is one tablespoon of vinegar for every cup of dye, but a quick Internet search will produce a plethora of recipes.
Half the fun, Parker said, is seeing the colors that come from the various ingredients.
“It is a bit of kitchen magic and a chemistry experiment,” said Parker. “You get bright orange from purple onion skin. The skin is a deep purple but when you boil it, the dye turns out to be a very vivid orange.”
There are no set rules for what items can or can’t be used to make egg dye, but anything that stains your hands or countertop are good options. Beets, blueberries, coffee and tea are some of the items that produce the most vibrantly colored dyes.
“Sometimes the colors you get from something are sort of surprising,” said Parker. “Purple cabbage is maybe my favorite because the strong turquoise color it produces is so unexpected. It is not the best smell you will ever have in your kitchen, but the red cabbage makes a really nice, fun color.”
Parker’s latest experiment is the onion skin dye. To make dye out of onions, you only need the papery, dry colored skin, which tends to fall off of the onion anyway.
“It is kind of mind blowing because you are not always sure what you are going to get in terms of a dye,” said Parker. “The kids at the class this morning were so creative, moving the eggs from one color to another and swirling them and all kinds of really artistic things. And we did not just have kids; there were some adults who came without kids just to learn and have fun. It is appealing to a large range of people.”
Having the option to make egg dyes from scratch adds a whole new dimension to a holiday tradition and offers an opportunity for learning that is fun and safe.
“Kids that are home on spring break can do this and have a science experiment and art lesson all in one,” said Parker. “And it feels pretty safe to be mixing water and vegetables and things like that from your kitchen.”