navygreen | Easter au naturel.

I colored my eggs naturally this morning. They turned out SO beautifully!

I used onion skins to dye the eggs. The brown, papery skins, and I'd been collecting them from Runza for the past two days. I was so excited to make them that I couldn't sleep last night - I woke up every hour, just counting down the time until I could get up and get started! I made the eggs all by myself, and I had so much fun doing it! I call them my "grown-up eggs" - heehee. :-)

(Without any explanation, you can watch a slideshow of the egg-dying process HERE.)

To start with, I had a bunch of plain, raw eggs:

As I mentioned, I'd saved about a bag full (the plastic kind you get from the grocery store) of the brown paper skins from yellow onions (used at Runza for making onion rings) for a couple days. The paper skins are delicate and brittle when dry, so I soaked a few in a small bowl of water first. I also wet the eggs, as that helps to adhere the skins a bit better.

The curved onion skins naturally wrap fairly well around the surface of the egg. The bigger pieces of skin work the best, obviously, because then you can also tuck the extra around the ends of the egg, too. You want as much of the egg covered as possible.

Once the egg is wrapped well, carefully place it in a nylon (I cut off the feet parts of knee-highs) and tie it tightly with a twistie or a rubber band.

Bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, and then carefully add the eggs. Boil them for 8-10 minutes, depending on how you like your hard-boiled eggs.

(Yes, I know - most boring picture ever.)

Carefully pour off the boiling water and then run cool water over the eggs. I did this a few times, each time using slightly cooler water, until the eggs were cool enough to handle. Gently remove the nylon (save for using again, if you wish), and unwrap the onion skins from the egg. Inside, you will find a brilliantly marbled egg, made with the natural dyes and designs from the onion skin!

First batch of marbled eggs from onion skins

The eggs will darken just a smidge as they dry, and they are glorious. I was so pleased with my first set of onion-dyed eggs!

I had another plan for more eggs, too. I was hoping for a different result, and the process varied a little bit. To begin with, I used raw eggs and onion skins once again:

This time, I filled two pots with cold water, then dumped all the rest of the onion skins into them. The skins floated on the water until I pushed them down with a spoon and wet them, but then they simmered nicely.

I brought the water to a rolling boil, and I kept it there until the water had dyed a deep reddish-brown (about ten minutes), and then I turned the heat off. Into each pot, I stirred 1/4 cup of white vinegar. I then strained the skins out, and set the dye aside.

I readied the eggs for dyeing. I picked up several different types of flowers to use as botanicals in the dyeing process yesterday (I had to buy them as it is definitely still winter around here - no green in sight!).

I don't know much about flowers, but I used some blue delphinium, some baby carnations, some baby's breath, and two different kinds of pink flowers. I flattened small pieces of botanicals to wet eggs and tied them tightly in the nylons.

Once I was nearly finished preparing the eggs, I turned the heat on again under the pots. I brought the dye back up to a simmering boil, and I gently dropped the eggs in. I let them boil for 10 minutes.

Once the time was up, I drained the boiling water from the eggs again, and I cooled them in several washes of more water. When I could easily handle the eggs, I began unwrapping them carefully. If any botanicals were stuck to an egg, I gently rinsed the egg in cool, running water to remove them. The results were magnificent!

Before calling it done, I put a spot of canola oil on a paper towel and shined each egg just a bit. This step also helps to seal the pores of the egg and keep it fresher a little longer.

In some cases, the different flowers and petals used bled small amounts of blue, purple and pink color into the eggs (which was even more beautiful!). Mostly, however, the spaces covered by botanicals remained white - leaving a silhouette effect.