Wooden Easter Eggs

 With Easter Fast approaching I thought it would be fun  to do an egg craft. A bunny does not visit our house, but we will have an egg hunt and a fun basket. Since there will be goodies in the basket we felt no need for plastic eggs that contain yet more goodies. Bear's family hid actual dyed eggs but since we will be doing our hunt outdoors we are choosing wooden ones so not to attract the wild life. 

First I tried natural dyes, and while lovely they were not quite what I was looking for. The colors are off in the photos. They are actually a burnt red, light orange, yellow, and deep dusty purple. I used, yellow onion skins, paprika, turmeric, and blueberries for those colors. I added 5 cups of dyed water, 4 tablespoons of vinegar, and 1 teaspoon of salt to each dye bath and let them sit for 1 hour. 

I really was looking for some nice jewel tones so I used non toxic watercolors. First I tried soaking them in the watercolor but that did not do the trick. Then I used the watercolors straight from the tube and coated every inch of the eggs. I let them dry and then rinsed them off under cold water till the water ran clear (so the colors would not bleed later when being handled or set in the dewy grass). I had to do this twice for the warm colors and three times for the cool colors. Satisfied with the colors and consistency, I waited for them to dry once more and coated them several times with a beeswax wood polish. While they are not what I was originally going for, I love how they turned out. 

Be well, and have fun!