Seattle photographer Emily Weaver Brown has produced some spectacular dyed Easter eggs. She made a bright yellow using a paste made of turmeric and vinegar, and made other colors out of blackberries, beets, and pomogranate juice. Here's the kicker:

For every color but the yellow I put 3 eggs in a glass and covered them with the juice/dye. I then covered the jars with plastic wrap and refrigerated them for about 16 hours. I checked the liquid dyes at this point and realized that a film was forming around the eggs. I pulled them out, rinsed them and then returned them to the die for another 8 hours.

Twenty-four hours! In part because we grew up with commercial Easter egg dyes, we never considered a long soak (ours sat in our homemade dyes for no more than 30 minutes, at the most). We also added our vinegar to the dyes at the end (after the dye-producing products had been strained out) in the belief that its purpose was solely to help the dye stick to the egg. Perhaps it also plays a role in color extraction?

We were also using brown eggs. We've since received some white and pale blue Ameraucana chicken eggs from a neighbor, though... Emily warned in an email that some of her colors are fading now, particularly the pink, but one look at those eggs and we're dying to go another round!