Pang! Who remembers it from the past - or more recently if you have kids? Those plastic egg mills with which you can easily paint an Easter egg all around never last long. Sooner or later that little feather jumps and your egg no longer clips. One and all frustration. Here you can see how to make your own egg mill out of cardboard in no time. And that included paint: what is it made of? Our DIY expert Melanie got to work on something much more fun: natural paint for Easter eggs. She makes that natural paint herself. Bring on the beets!
Natural paint for eggs
For many children, it is a regular thing at Easter: painting boiled eggs. Most children probably do so with one of those frustrating disposable things - for lack of better. Now I have a fun tip: you can also paint Easter eggs with natural paint. That's paint you make from food like onions, avocado, coffee, beets or red cabbage. In short, very ordinary products that you might already have at home or can easily buy in the supermarket. And the great thing is, you can be sure there is no rubbish in it.
Using natural ingredients such as red cabbage, blueberries and onion, you can dye your own Easter eggs.
Paint from vegetables, fruits and herbs
I got the prettiest naturally dyed Easter eggs with red onion peels, red cabbage and blueberries. I also tried dyeing Easter eggs with hibiscus tea, but this turned out rather light. You could get green eggs by spinach or avocado, or mix the dye bath of turmeric with some of the red cabbage: as yellow and blue together also makes green! If you only use a small layer in the dye bath, you could also make a two-coloured Easter egg. Are you convinced and want to get started with your own natural paint for Easter eggs? Then experiment with other vegetables, fruits and herbs too!
Cool: natural dyeing for Easter eggs
Tools
- cup full of red onion peels(reddish brown)
- cup full of peels of yellow onion(yellow/orange)
- cup full of sliced red cabbage(blue, with brown eggs it turns greenish)
- cup full of sliced beetroot(pink) (you can also use beetroot juice)
- 2 tbsp turmeric(yellow or orange for brown eggs)
- coffee(brown)
- cup of blueberries or blueberries(fresh or frozen) (purple)
- vinegar
- (coconut) oil
- glass jars
- colander
- boiled eggs(I used white eggs, both can be done, but the colour effect will be a bit different, the colours are darker with brown eggs).
- possibly: old tights and leaves or flowers
Instructions
- Put your desired paint material (i.e. your chosen food) in a saucepan with 2 cups of water. Bring to the boil and leave it on low heat for about 20-30 minutes. Keep the lid on the pan so that not too much evaporates.
- Let cool and then pour your paint mixture through your colander into a glass jar. You don't need to boil the turmeric, you can just dissolve it in the water. The same goes for the coffee. Use nice strong coffee.
- Add 2-3 tablespoons of vinegar to your paint mixture, this helps to fix the colour to the egg.
- Dip your boiled egg into the dye mixture and leave it chilled for a few hours. If you put several eggs in one dye bath, make sure they do not lie against each other. (Ver(3)double the recipe if necessary).
- Cool the eggs! As I didn't have enough space in my fridge, and it still cools down quite a bit outside, I put the jars outside overnight. You can turn them a bit in the dye bath every now and then so they colour more regularly. I particularly like the blotchy effect. If you want a darker effect, let the egg dry and repeat the dye bath again.
Notes
For an extra fun effect, use pantyhose to tie leaves on the eggs before placing them in the natural dye bath.
Also getting started with natural paint for Easter eggs?
Have you now also got the urge to get started with natural paint for Easter eggs? Share your creations in Instagram stories and tag @thegreenlist.nl. If you have discovered another great supermarket product with which you can make good natural paint, we would also love to hear about it. Nice!
More tips for greener Easter
- Do you already have a sustainable Easter tree? Read how to grow these yourself using an old Easter branch here.
- The sustainable Easter decorations just make your own from leftover materials.
- More in the mood for a vegan Easter breakfast? Mahlee has listed all the egg replacements!
- More of a sweet tooth? Then be sure to try this recipe for surprise vegan Easter eggs.
Photo credits: Melanie de Oliveira.
