Happy Spring!
creating space for beauty & simplicity
Happy Spring!
I have been sharing my egg dying adventures on instagram and thought it might be fun to share my process of making cyanotype eggs. Don’t worry though these prints are made with only natural ingredients!
I used a purple cabbage dye bath which makes the most perfect blue and gives a sun print effect on the egg.
I clipped leaves and flowers from my backyard and houseplants such as snowdrops, juniper leaf, oxalis, fern, begonia and ranunculus leaf.
You can use hard boiled eggs or dye raw ones to be blown out after they have dried.
It really is a simple process with a gorgeous result.
Cyanotype Eggs
~White hard boiled or raw eggs
~Nude pantyhose cut into small pieces (I may have just pocketed a few of those throw away peds at the shoe store. Shhhh… but they do work perfectly!)
~Leaf and flower cuttings from your backyard or houseplants
~1 whole purple cabbage
~White vinegar
~Pint size ball jars
In a large pot, mix 2 quarts of water and 1/4 cup white distilled vinegar. Add 1 head of chopped purple cabbage. Bring water to a boil and simmer for 1-2 hours.
Turn off heat and let cool. While cooling, position leaf/flower cutting on egg and hold in place by encasing the whole egg with pantyhose. Tie tightly in a knot or secure with a rubber band or twist tie.
Fill individual ball jars with dye bath and place each egg into it’s own cup. You could also submerge all of your eggs at once into the large pot of dye. Let sit overnight or for several hours to get a deep blue. The longer it sits the deeper the hue. Keep checking to get your desired shade.
Pull egg from dye bath and place on paper towel or rag to drain a bit. Allowing it to dry as long as possible makes for a crisper silhouette.
Remove pantyhose and allow it to dry some more.
Gently peel off leaf and voila!
well you sure all know how to make a girl blush!! thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to write to me.
i so appreciate all of your thoughtful comments.
i also appreciated those of you who gave me suggestions and ideas.
and it was so neat to hear from many of you for the first time.
you have all encouraged me to come back here more often and focus more on what we do in our every day lives, our traditions, holidays and parties, houseplants, gardening, thrifted finds and my mother’s home and garden.
i also appreciated the suggestion about answering more of your questions within the comment section. in fact i even took the time to personally answer each and every comment on the last post and i had so much fun doing it!
at the same time it also feels so good to know that you all enjoy coming here to find this space just the way it is. so thank you friends!
easter weekend was lovely with some warm weather and sunshine mixed in which was such a treat.
the girls came down on sunday to find their easter baskets filled with chocolates, seed packets, a succulent plant and other little goodies.
we then headed outside for an egg hunt. i had hid the eggs earlier that morning and placed one with a little face drawn on inside the coop. we all laughed when it was found right next to a freshly laid ‘americana’ blue egg.
over by the birdbath the girls found the the basket of confetti eggs (cascarons). this is a tradition that has been carried on since i was a little girl. they are so easy to make. and yes they make one big colorful mess but are so much fun.
i did however keep finding pieces of confetti in my dutch baby at breakfast.