Chef Ashely Giddens has been spending more time than usual at home over the past few weeks. When she isn’t cooking, she’s keeping busy with crafts. Her latest project? Tie-dyed Easter eggs. Here’s Ashley:
Being cooped up at home leaves plenty of time for crafty experiments. Last week I tie-dyed a sweatsuit, and I loved the results. With Easter around the corner, I wondered if I could apply the same methods to dying Easter eggs.
I discovered ice dying when I was researching tie-dye techniques for my matching set. Basically you surround whatever you’re dying with a little wall, top it with crushed ice, and then drop random bits of dye directly onto the ice. When the ice melts, the dye falls onto the item and creates a watercolor effect. It worked so well on my clothing, that I wanted to see if the process could work on other projects: Enter, eggs.
For dye to adhere to eggshells, you need to add an acid. To adapt the ice dying process for eggs, I just doused the ice in a splash of vinegar before dotting the dye over the cubes.
For variety, I also dyed a few eggs with my tried and true practice of dying: wrapping eggs in various objects from my craft bin (string, wire, stickers, rubber bands, etc) and soaking in dye baths. I also colored a few with a food safe marker.
General Tips:
- Make sure your eggs are hard-boiled, it makes it easier to handle them without cracking.
- I used both white and brown eggs, the brown had less color but were still pretty.
- Protect your work surface, I covered my countertops with some parchment paper.
- If they’re available, use gloves.
- Have fun! There’s no need to stress about perfect results this year. Consider this a fun time to be creative, either on your own, or with loved ones.
- If you want to be able to eat the eggs, stick to food safe dyes and edible glitter. Other than that, go wild!
