Recipes: Tym’s Custom Colors

Tym’s Custom Colors

My friend Tym is a pysankar in Washington state. He told me once that he mixes small amounts of dye to create accent colors for spot dyeing. He uses teaspoon amounts in a small bowl, and then applies the dyes to the egg with cotton swabs.

Before mixing up dyes, though, he tests them out by making test batches in a spoon, using drop of the dye rather than a teaspoon. He mixes the drops together, then swabs the resultant mixture on a piece of white cardboard to have a look at the color.

Below are a few sample cards that he sent me, with the dye recipes written in. The dyes used in these recipes are all UGS dyes, and all the recipes call for equal measures (teaspoons) of the dyes listed, except for black dye, of which only a few drops are used.

And here are a few more recipes he sent, in his own words:

Mixing colors: I use in a smaller bowl, ONE SPOONFUL each from color in jars and

use swap cotton to soaked on eggshell where want color at:

Black + dark red (for end tip of poppy flower)

Yellow+ pumpkin

Gold + pumpkin

Red + brown

black + light green (for poppy leaves)

Red + pumpkin (for poppy flower)

Light Green + yellow

Purple + royal Blue

Purple + light blue