Who misses getting their hands dirty and getting creative with colour?! We do! Enter shibori style egg dyeing for Easter – a Japanese indigo dyeing technique that is quite beautiful 🙂 Now, we could say that it is a good activity to do with the kids but, to be honest, it is a fun activity to do for you!  The results are eggs displaying stunning colours and striking patterns which are perfect as beauitful handmade Easter decorations. Perhaps the best bit is the mystery of how the eggs will turn out, and if you are not happy with the colour or pattern, then you can wrap the eggs back up and dip it again! We had plenty of fun doing it and here’s everything that you need to know to do it yourself…

What you will need…

• Hard boiled eggs (we used duck’s eggs as they are white so result is a better contrast with the blue)
• Blue food colouring
• Coffee filter papers
• Scissors
• Twine
• Elastic bands
• Vinegar
• Water
• Keith Brymer Jones mug to dye in

Method…

Wrap the coffee filter paper around the egg until smooth. Take the excess paper to the top of the egg and tie an elastic band around it to make a knot. Cut a piece of twine approximately 1 metre in length. Attach one end of the twine to the elastic band and then wrap the twine around the egg in a pattern. Wrap an elastic band around the middle of the egg to tighten the twine to the shell of the egg. Repeat with all eggs.

Make up dye baths in your Keith Brymer Jones mugs. Add 12 drops of blue food colouring and one tablespoon of vinegar in each mug. Fill with enough water so that the egg will be completely covered. Place all the eggs into the dye baths and leave for at least 10 minutes up to 30 minutes. It depends on the colour desired. This can be done in shifts if you don’t have may dye baths and lots of eggs.

Remove eggs and unravel the twine and paper. Enjoy that moment of suspense when you see the unique pattern formed on the eggs for the first time! If the colour is not strong enough then re-wrap with fresh paper and twine and dip back into the dye bath.

Top Tip!

We found that elastic bands wrapped around the eggs instead of twine left bolder and more contrasting markings!

Happy egg-perimenting this Easter! 🐣🐇🥚🐤🐰