Pysanky

I decided that between now and Easter (April 24) I am going to dust off the pysanky (Ukranian egg dyeing) supplies and produce at least a dozen eggs a week. So if you have the foresight to invite me over sometime around Easter, you are very likely to be a recipient of same.

One of the fun things about pysanky is that each symbol and color has a meaning so it is a challenge to create an egg specific to an occasion.

Pysanky uses a wax resist method for the dyeing process. You dye the eggs from light to dark with blues and greens having their own special application process. Orange is used as both a dye and a wash for the blues and greens to remove the excess before continuing.

It works as follows: everything on the egg that you want to be white you cover with melted beeswax using a kitska, or wax pen and a candle - putting the wax in the pen and using the candle to melt it so it will flow. After you finish with that you put it into the next lightest color, usually yellow. Then cover all of the parts you want to stay yellow with wax and so on.

When finished, you melt off the wax, cover with varnish and then blow the raw egg out of the shell.

The Work Space
Above are the tools of the trade: candles, beeswax, kitska. pencil, lathe and dyes

This is what I have produced so far

Symbolism for egg above:
Pine needles: Long life, youth, health
Curls: Defense or protection
Stag: Leadership, victory, joy, masculinity
Red: Happiness, hope or passion
Perfect gift for a college graduate!

Fish: abundance, baptism, regenerative powers, sacrifice
Crosshatch triangle (basket): contained knowledge, motherhood, giver of life and gifts
Ladder: Searching, rising above the petty problems of life
Brown: Mother earth and her gifts, harvest
Black: Eternity, darkest before the dawn

Maybe one day I will learn how to use my camera and not take a blurry picture...