By Sammy Bellman

Eggs have been a canvas for art for most of civilization. The oldest carved and dyed eggs found by archeologists were in South Africa, dating back between 65,000 to 55,000 years ago. In Europe, the oldest decorated eggs were found in Worms, Germany in a grave from the 4th century (Hall, 2017).

Egg decorating spans many cultures. They are a large part of creation myths with symbolism of life, renewal, and rebirth, and they are found in folklore as symbols of healing and protection. Eggs are also found in religious ceremonies and stories. In Judaism, eggs are part of the seder during Passover. During the Zoroastrian celebration of the vernal equinox, Norwruz, colored eggs are used as a symbol of fertility and rebirth on an offering table. Beginning in the 4th century, Orthodox Christians started to dye eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ, possibly beginning the association of dyed eggs and Easter within Christianity. In Chinese folklore, red eggs were gifted to brides and grooms or upon the birth of a new son to protect and bring good fortune to the individuals (Hall, 2017).  

While researching how to dye eggs with plants, I also stumbled across a more advanced technique for decorating and coloring at the same time. Historically, in Scandinavia and North Britain, leaves and flowers were often pressed against the egg and then wrapped in onion skins before boiling to allow for the impression of the leaf upon the dyed exterior. We decided to try this out with different dye baths by using a piece of nylon tied over the egg to hold the leaves in place. When choosing leaves and flowers to press, we recommend using more tender leaves since thicker evergreen leaves won’t adhere to the shell as easily, allowing for the dye baths to seep under the area you are trying to leave without color.

Like dyeing fabric, dyeing eggs requires either a mordant or modifier to help the color become more vibrant and steadfast. We decided to use white vinegar as a modifier to help enrich our color. Using white vinegar (acetic acid) as a modifier is helpful since eggshells are made from calcium carbonate. When the eggshell and vinegar are combined a chemical reaction occurs, causing a slight breakdown of the outer shell of the egg which allows for a more permeable surface to hold the color.

As a bonus, once done with your eggs you can grind up your eggshells and add them as a calcium boost to your garden soil, since no harmful chemicals are used in the coloring of the shell!

The Herbs We Chose

To dye our eggs, we used 17 different herbs with a spectrum of different colors to determine which would work the best. These included (in order from left to right in the photo): rose hips, beets, red onion skins, chile powder, yellow onion skins, yellow and orange pansies, turmeric root, tea oil leaves, bayberry leaves, Oregon grape stem, blueberries, butterfly pea flowers, red cabbage, lavender, eucalyptus, black tea, and coffee. A breakdown of the herbs and their resulting colors is in the chart below.Our Process

We made our dye baths a few days ahead for time-constraint reasons, and allowed the herbs to keep steeping in them as we dyed our eggs to try and make the most brilliant colors possible. Our dye baths steeped for five days, and this longevity could cause our results to be different than yours, if you try this at home. Leaving the herbs in the jar also allows for an easy way to identify each jar. Additionally, we decided to tie up a few of them in nylon socks with a mixture of different small tender flowers and leaves, in the Scandinavian tradition. We used the following general recipe:

2-4 TBSP herb of choice (or to your heart’s desire)
1-2 cups of hot water
1 TBSP vinegar per cup of water

1. Bring water to a boil with plant or herb of choice or pour boiling water over herb in jar
2. Steep herb
3. Allow mixture to come to room temperature
4. Mix in 1 TBSP white vinegar per cup of water
5. Place egg in dye bath for 15 minutes up to overnight, depending on how saturated of a color you are trying to achieve

After dyeing, allow the egg to dry on a rack since the color can smudge off if it is not fully dried.

We allowed our eggs to sit in their respective color baths for approximately 2 hours. The first hour was just water and plant material – we wanted to see how vibrant the colors would be without vinegar (answer: not very!). After adding the vinegar we allowed the eggs to soak for another hour. Some of the herbs produced very vibrant pigments, whereas others were more lackluster. We then observed our colored eggs three days later, and boy, were we surprised! The vibrant colors faded fast and left much more muted tones. The brilliant purple of the beets changed to a greenish gray, and the bright blue of the butterfly pea faded to a more subdued color.

Much to our chagrin (but not surprisingly), not every dye bath worked as expected, but that was part of the fun of the experiment. We learned that imprinting the flowers was easier said than done, as many of them allowed some liquid to seep underneath so the impressions weren’t as prominent as we had hoped. Snowdrops and wood sorrel leaves worked the best, yarrow leaves and salvia flowers less so.

* We have butterfly pea twice since it works as a pH indicator and changes colors once mixed with vinegar, allowing for two different-colored egg baths.

Overall, getting to try out this crafty experience I had a lot of fun coming up with a list of different dye plants, but the results do affect the overall experience. When dyeing eggs part of the joy is getting to see the bright color again later, so if that is a joy you are looking forward to, I don’t know if I can fully recommend the craft. I think the overall set up for dyeing the eggs wasn’t too labor intensive, except it was more work than using a kit from the store. But I also know I would try this again because I liked seeing the natural pigments and being surprised by my results, even if the results were similar shades of colors.

Of the different dyes we tried, our best recommendations for the most vibrant colors would be beets, red onion skins, blueberries, butterfly pea, red cabbage, and black tea. While the colors weren’t as steadfast for some of them, they still produced nice results the first day.

Have fun trying yourself, and if you do, please let us know what you used and your results! If you use anything else, please share your favorite dyed-egg color that you achieved!

Photo Credits: 1) Engraved ostrich eggshells. Diepkloof Rock Shelter, South Africa dated 60,000 years ago (Pierre-Jean Texier, Diepkloof Project via Science.org); 2) Red dyed eggs distributed during birthdays and baby celebrations by the Chinese community in Singapore (ProjectManhatten via Wikimedia); 3) Dye baths using 17 different herbs (Erin Holden); 4) An array of herbs used to imprint designs on the eggs (Samantha Bellman); 5) Eggs and herbs wrapped in nylon socks (Erin Holden); 6) Wood sorrel leaves left a nice impression on this red onion skin-dyed egg (Erin Holden); 7) Dyed eggs after two hours in the dye baths (starting with rose hips in the top left, they follow the order in the table) (Erin Holden); 8) Eggs in the same order after three days (Samantha Bellman); 9) A blue egg dyed with butterfly pea (with vinegar) and a purple egg dyed with beets (Samantha Bellman)

References

Hall, S. 2017. The ancient art of decorating eggs. Library of Congress Blogs. Accessed February 12, 2025.  Available from: https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2017/04/decorating-eggs/

Samantha Bellman is the 2024-2025 intern for the National Herb Garden in Washington, DC. She received her degree in Environmental Science Terrestrial Resource Management from the University of Washington-Seattle. While not out in the garden, she enjoys reading, baking, crafting, and cooking.