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Easter DIY by the L`Effet gift shop's artists. Easter egg magic continues (Part 3 of 3)

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Today we have the last Easter guest post by the artists behind the L`Effet gift shop (you can find their previous posts here and here). The experiments with the organic dyes for the Easter eggs had turned out to be so fun and successful that they made a very right decision to continue and learn more about the colours they could get with the herbs (and to share it with us!) I am personally quite jealous that they've found time for this! Their instructions are safe here in my blog, so I can play next year maybe :)

Now lets enjoy the final set of experiments!
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Hi all again! We could not even imagine what we would find out when started collecting information for our first project! We learned that there were many interesting and unexpected organic dyes that could be used for colouring eggs. For example, the cherry branches or the cherry bark could dye the egg shell in pink or red colour. One of our readers shared her experience on dyeing the eggs with the pine nut shells. We are still fascinated with the hibiscus and its ability to dye the egg shell in different shades of blue. We have already had two sets of experiments colouring the eggs with the organic dyes (you could see them in our previous posts). That still was not enough to satisfy our curiosity. We wanted to get even more results and more colours!

This is what we needed besides our desire and determination:

- A dozen of white eggs,
- A bunch of glass jars,
- A pot (a veteran of our experiments),
- Vinegar
- Water


We spent the first day cooking broths and eggs in them, then we left the eggs to soak in the jars with the broths overnight. The next day was full surprises, note writing and picture taking. яйца


- Cherry brunches

We went to collect some cherry branches while the trees were not covered with the leaves yet. We tried to choose the brunches that were dry and broken as we did not want to hurt the trees. We did not get many branches that way, but that was ok. We have to admit that the cherry broth smells amazing! We could still smell it even after the broth has cooled down (it had sweet, tart, woody and surprisingly somewhat floral fragrance). The broth was amber-brown colour with a touch of red. 

We decided to add no vinegar at that time as we wanted to see what colour the broth would dye the eggs in. (Check out our first guest post for the broth cooking instructions). We blame ourselves for not collecting a good amount of the cherry branches to get a darker colour, so we got pale brownish-burgundy colour that close to the colour of dry blood.


- Pine nut shells

It was a real pleasure to make a pine nut shell broth! We loved the woody scent with a gentle hint of cedar oil that they produced. The broth colour was noble brown. We added the vinegar in it before cooking the eggs. The color turned out very beautiful! It was brown with a light purple haze particularly noticeable on the dry (but not oiled) eggs.


- Pilaf seasoning mix with turmeric

The seasoning mix was once intended for pilaf cooking... but its destiny was changed in spring. We made a pilaf seasoning mix broth and divided it into two halves. One half has been left as is. We added some vinegar into the other half. We proved once again that the colour looked more even on the egg shell if there was the vinegar in the dye.

Note, that adding the vinegar to different organic dyes leads to different results. The egg that was dyed in the pilaf seasoning mix broth with vinegar turned out to be darker than the egg that was dyed in the similar broth with no vinegar (remember, that the result was completely opposite when we added vinegar into the hibiscus broth) яйца



- Sudanese rose (aka hibiscus) 

We tried to dye the eggs with Hibiscus again. We got almost the same result as we got the previous time (see our second guest post). We got the colours from bluish-green to dark gray. The only difference the third time was that the eggs became greener when left under the sunlight. They got a deep emerald hue on the verge of the transition into the blue. One egg (in the first photo) was dyed in the broth with no vinegar, the second egg was dyed in the broth with some vinegar in it.



- Ordinary black tea

We brewed the fine black tea and added some vinegar before dyeing the eggs in it. The eggs got a beautiful orange-brown (merry and warm!) colour. One egg was not immersed completely in the liquid and got a few small stains. Keep this in mind when dyeing your eggs.


The whole experiment took us three days.

Day 1 - we prepared all the broths and left them overnight to make them stronger.
Day 2 - we cooked the eggs in the broths, cooled them down, then poured all the broths into the glass jars and transferred the eggs into them; then left them in the jars overnight.
Day 3 (morning) - we took the eggs out, air dried them, looked at them, oiled them and enjoyed the results.


"Colour Map" 

1 - The eggs before oiling:


2 - The eggs after oiling:


As you probably know, the freshly cooked eggs should be immersed in cold water right after cooking so the shell could be easily peeled of. This only makes sense to do if you are planning to use the eggs immediately. The dyed eggs are going to be refrigerated if you are working on them a day or two before Easter. You will be able to peel off the shell effortlessly then. 

We hope you are going to have fun colouring your eggs with the organic dyes!


We wish you Happy Easter! May it bring you good health and happiness!

We have spent a few days before Easter preparing eggs and writing these posts for you. We really enjoyed that and we were happy to see that our experiments got a lot of interest from so many people! Thank you for reading and commenting!

We've designed this virtual card based on our experiments. It is dedicated to all who decide to give the organic dyes a go. We hope you succeed!


The artists of the L`Effet gift shop
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