Wytch in-the-woods

finished eggs!

Ostara Eggs with natural dyes

...we did it!!!!!!!






I found this tutorial:http://bigsislilsis.com/2010/04/02/natural-dye-colored-easter-eggs/ and really wanted to our eggs this way to see how it worked.

I assembled the materials, started the dye baths and folks brought more leaves and flowers.

all ready to go!

Three Lovely folk in our circle joined me in the decorating on Sunday and 2 of them came back for the 'unveiling'.  We followed the directions with the exception of adding purple onionskins to the cranberry dye bath, which made the brown a much nicer color.  

Dipping the raw eggs in water and dipping the leaves and petals in water made them stick on the eggs more effectively.

many hands to get them into stockings

And we also found out it was nearly impossible for one person to slip the stretched nylon over the eggs delicately designed without moving the leaves and petals… so it became a two person four-handed process.

into the dye bath

On the ones that we allowed the leaves and petals to just be random turned out really marvelous.

out of the dye bath 3.5 hrs later

The other thing we did differently is that we did not rub or wash the eggs until the following day, when the dyes were completely set.  Before we oiled the eggs on the day after we dyed them, they were lovely but very subtle.

We used grape seed oil and it really made them quite stunning!