Wait! What? Who Switched My Dyes?

One of the things I have the most fun with when I'm working on my eggshell mozaics is coloring the shells. You can pick out the colors you want to make, but it's always a surprise to see what you actually get. I've learned through lots and lots and lots of trials that the shells absorb the red dyes the easiest. Even the tiniest drop of red dye can make a big difference in the results. So, I have a lot of reds, pinks, purples and oranges, but very few true blues and deep greens. Brown is suprisingly difficult to make.

I can't tell you how many times I've poured out my deep green dye only to reveal strangely purple shells. Sometimes I think someone is playing a trick on me because the color of the shells beneath the dyed water is completely wrong.

Here's one example - these nice purple shells came out of a deep turquoise dye. Very odd.

How did those purple shells get in that turquoise dye?

Definately purple

And to make things more interesting, my black dye has a lot of red in it. So if I try to make anything darker with the black dye, it invariably comes out reddish.

I've used mostly the McCormick liquid food dyes, but I've also used some of the Wilton gel colors. I've really gotten some incredible turquoise, hot pink and purples with those. And of course I've experimented with coffee, Hawaiian Punch, other red fruit juices and various other pantry staples, but the food dyes give me the best colors.

These were supposed to be forest green, but came out a funny gray.

Lots and lots and lots and lots of shells.

Sunny yellow.

Oh, so much fun!!

Quack!