vegetable dyes on white eggs?

[emmapal]

I teach a botany class in our home school co op, and I'm doing a lesson on vegetable dyes. Since Easter is coming up, it would be fun to dye white eggs rather than fabric scraps. What types of plants have you tried for this, and what do I need to add to help the color stick to the shells? I am thinking pomegranate, oak bark, black tea, purple cabbage, carrots, steeped in boiling water with Tb of white vinegar. I usually do vinegar plus food coloring with good results, but never tried plant dyes on anything.

Anyone tried this? tia!

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Red cabbage boiled in water with vinegar added gave me a deep blue.

Turmeric gave a rich yellow, but be careful as it stains everything!

Soaking first in one, then the other gave a vibrant green (things like spinach failed).

Beet pulp=pink

Beet pulp followed by turmeric=orange-red

Boiled yellow onion skins and vinegar soaked overnight-deep orange

http://countingchickns.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/cccrafteastereggs21.jpg

 

[emmapal]

Perfect! This is exactly what I am looking for! Never thought of turmeric or of mixing primary colors (duh, I do that with the food colored eggs every year). Will try pomegranate for red and see how we do.

Thank you!

 

[wyoDreamer]

I used the recipe from Mother Earth News, basically my color source plus 1 Tablespoon of vinegar and 3 c. of water. Boil for 15 minutes - lat stand to cool. Blueberries make a very pretty blue egg, I used frozen blueberries which were starting to get freezer burned. I also used strawberries for red (I didn't have any beets) and camamille tea for a light yellow. The tumeric made a much more intense yellow color when I tried that.
Just remember to strain the solids out or you will get spots and streaks of dark color - which actually can be pretty and makes a neat looking marbled egg.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

No prob at all. Have fun!

 

[cukooformarans]

How did this turn out?? Sounds like fun!!