Erica, you said you are not "having good results with the orange dye. Even leaving the egg in the dye all day, the color is light". I'd like to comment on that and help you figure out what's going on.
I had the most amazing results with orange dye today, so it's not the dye lot. However, that's of little comfort to you, so let me go through a process of elimination to help you with your situation.
Assuming the dye is mixed according to the package directions, here are a few things that could be happening:
- it could be the eggs themselves, but unfortunately there's no way of knowing any adverse effects in advance
- are your hands clean and/or free of hand lotion? grease and oil can prevent the dye from adhering to the egg
- are you using orange on a yellow egg? a yellow foundation will help the orange
- are you using orange on a green or blue egg? orange makes an excellent "wash" and removes darker colors (such as light green, light blue or turquoise) to prepare your shell for the brighter colors of red, pink or brick; however by doing this, your orange may not be as bright as you expect
- are your eggs fresh (I don't mean whole eggs versus empty eggshells; I mean freshly purchased)? over time an eggshell will dry out
Assuming you have taken care to prepare your eggs and dye, you could try a quick dip into colors such as red or scarlet, then back to the orange to see if you get more depth of color.
Let me know if any of these pysanky tips resolve your problem!
