Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

DJR
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Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby DJR » Sat Mar 31, 2018 4:35 am

I am not Ukrainian (I'm English-Scottish ancestrally speaking), but one of my long-time dear friends is. When my daughter & I visited her over Christmas 2017, she reintroduced me to pysanky. She learned to write pysanky from her mother, who learned from her mother, and so on.

As soon as I got home, in early January, we started writing pysanky on our own. It's very detailed work, and is based on applying beeswax with a kistka (a pen that writes molten wax) over the parts of the egg that you want to stay that colour. The wax in the chamber of the kistka is kept molten eitehr by heating it in a candle flame (traditional) or using an electric kistka which keeps the wax running smoothly at a steady temperature.

With a white egg, one would write all the lines/shapes that are to stay white, then dye it the next colour (usually yellow is next), then wax the lines/shapes that are to stay yellow, they dye it the next colour, and so on. Once finished, the wax is removed by holding it next to (not over) a candle flame traditionally and wiping off the melted wax. Modern pysanky writers remove the wax using other heat sources, but many still use the candle (including me). The egg is varnished & allowed to dry (usually 2-3 coats), then emptied using a single hole to get the yolk & albumin out. It can then be displayed for years and years.

I'm hooked! This evening I started eggs #54 & #55, so they are still in progress. Here are a few examples of my work, all done on eggs from my free-range chickens.

A more traditional design on a white chicken egg - I copied much of this egg from an online photo as this was early on and I was still figuring out how to do the more complex designs (it is tradition to pass down elements of traditional design from generation to generation):
DJRegg17side 2018Jan21.jpg
DJRegg17side 2018Jan21.jpg (82.86 KiB) Viewed 11255 times


A design of my own on a brown chicken egg. The first wax lines cover the natural eggshell colour (in this case, a coppery-brown colour). Then the whole egg is soaked in 10% vinegar which chemically "etches" the egg taking the surface colour off and revealing lighter shades of brown underneath. If it is etched long enough, it turns white or near-white. Then the egg is waxed & dyed in the usual fashion. The resulting pattern has texture and gives more depth to the design. Like this:
DJRegg36oblique 2018Feb22.jpg
DJRegg36oblique 2018Feb22.jpg (76.77 KiB) Viewed 11255 times


This is another etched brown chicken egg done with an equestrian design of my own, but based on one of the tradition base designs for pysanky called "40 triangles" (there are many, many variations on this theme, and most times there are 48 triangles (or multiples thereof), not 40!). The horses are free-hand drawn on the egg using a heavy-tipped kistka as well as all the other lines I wanted to stay that rich coppery brown colour. Then I partially etched it and covered the lighter brown parts of the egg with wax. Then I completely etched it to white & covered the parts I wanted to stay white with wax. Then I dyed it a royal blue colour, removed the wax, varnished the egg and emptied it. This photo shows it pre-varnish (it's hard to take good photos of varnished eggs because of the glare).
DJRegg53oblique 2018Mar28.jpg
DJRegg53oblique 2018Mar28.jpg (68.31 KiB) Viewed 11255 times


Does anyone else enjoy this fun hobby? I'm amazed how quickly my lines went from quite shaky/tentative to more solid/straight/definitive. I still have a LOT to learn, and I think I'll be spending years perfecting this craft (happily!).
formerly known as "Deanna" on UDBB -- and prior to that, as "DJD".

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby acheyarcher » Sat Mar 31, 2018 12:51 pm

I use to, started when I was in high school.

I remember the frustration of making a mistake.

I love your horse design. I enjoyed making roosters.
I never emptied mine, they will dry over time, though you have to rotate the egg to keep the yolk from drying adhered to the shell

I dont have any pictures, to far in the past.

National Geographic did a full article about pysanky, I believe in the early 70s

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StraightForward
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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby StraightForward » Sat Mar 31, 2018 1:51 pm

Wow, those are stunning! I've never seen these before; thank you for sharing them. :)
Keep calm and canter on.

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby Dapple Field » Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:18 pm

Oh my gosh! They are beautiful !!

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby Rockabilly » Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:26 pm

Is there no end to your talents? They are beautiful.

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby Canyon » Sat Mar 31, 2018 2:59 pm

I remember decorating several when I was a kid. No Ukrainian in my background either! I guess my dad must have made the stylus for us. We used eggs that had already been emptied, washed and dried. Maybe we were afraid of breaking the egg after investing all the work of decorating it?

Anyway, your designs are beautiful! Ours were no where near as intricate. I am tempted to investigate an electric stylus.

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby kande50 » Sat Mar 31, 2018 11:03 pm

Really nice, and I like the idea of bleaching the brown eggs.

Someone I worked with did Pysanky and gave me a kistka, which I used to draw on eggs in non-traditional ways. But my kistka went under years ago and never re-emerged so I've been painting eggs instead of drawing and dyeing them.

In fact, I was talking to someone yesterday about how to preserve my painted eggs, and my idea was to buy a couple gallons of that two part epoxy resin and hardener and dip and/or fill them, and she came up with the better idea of mixing the epoxy with some kind of filler like sand or sawdust or something, and squirting that into the eggs.

Has anyone tried anything like that with blown eggs?

DJR
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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby DJR » Sun Apr 01, 2018 2:26 am

I use Varathane varnish on a blown egg, it works great.

I know many work on already-emptied eggs, but I prefer the weight of the full egg (and it sinks in the dyes, no need to weight it down). So far, out of 53 eggs I've done to date, only one succumbed to a too-vigorous blow-out attempt (when I was a rookie at it).
formerly known as "Deanna" on UDBB -- and prior to that, as "DJD".

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby Moutaineer » Sun Apr 01, 2018 5:41 pm

These are beautiful!

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby Rosie B » Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:41 am

DJR - those are stunning! I LOVE the horse one especially.

My siblings and I all used to do pysanky for DAYS leading up to easter every year. My mom still has the collection, and there are probably close to 40. My sister (the professional artist) is 10 years my senior so hers were absolutely stunning.

What I can't figure out is how you have the TIME to do those!! They are so time consuming, and you have so many horses and animals to look after as well as a daughter! Do you sleep at all? :)

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby Chisamba » Mon Apr 02, 2018 1:52 pm

they are lovely

DJR
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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby DJR » Mon Apr 02, 2018 2:20 pm

Rosie B wrote:DJR - those are stunning! I LOVE the horse one especially.

My siblings and I all used to do pysanky for DAYS leading up to easter every year. My mom still has the collection, and there are probably close to 40. My sister (the professional artist) is 10 years my senior so hers were absolutely stunning.

What I can't figure out is how you have the TIME to do those!! They are so time consuming, and you have so many horses and animals to look after as well as a daughter! Do you sleep at all? :)


The time thing is simply because I didn't ride at all from mid-December to the beginning of March. I put my horses into an indoor board situation in mid-December, then a huge & long deep freeze hit us right after Xmas for 3 wks so I basically spent all that money and only got to ride once (it was -20 or colder so way too cold to ride, period). I got frustrated about the wasted money and moved them home again. Then lost all ambition to try boarding again and used my time for other pursuits ... like pysanky!

In that period when I didn't ride, I produced just over fifty pysanky. LOVED doing it. Now I only have time to write pysanky after my daughter goes to bed in that brief window of time before I go comatose myself, so it's going to be more a "when I can" hobby now at least until next winter.
formerly known as "Deanna" on UDBB -- and prior to that, as "DJD".

kande50
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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby kande50 » Tue Apr 03, 2018 11:59 pm

DJR wrote:In that period when I didn't ride, I produced just over fifty pysanky. LOVED doing it.


Last winter was the first one in decades that I didn't ride all winter, and I enjoyed it so much that I think not riding may become a new winter tradition for me. :-)

Course this last winter was worse than most so I may change my mind about that, but I too, had a great winter, and getting restarted again this spring was way easier than I thought it was going to be.

It was mostly pottery this winter, but I can see that Pysanky is going to happen one of these days, too.

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby Amado » Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:36 am

Holy cow. Those are spectacular!!! Wow! I LOVE them!!

(Carp. Now I have to fight the urge to go online and buy supplies).

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Re: Pysanky anyone? (Ukrainian Easter eggs)

Postby DJR » Sun Apr 08, 2018 4:06 pm

Amado wrote:Holy cow. Those are spectacular!!! Wow! I LOVE them!!

(Carp. Now I have to fight the urge to go online and buy supplies).


Don't fight the urge, go for it!!!

Here's an excellent source (in Toronto, Canada).
https://ukrainianeggcessories.com/

There are many sources in the States, too.

Do it, do it, do it!!! :mrgreen:
formerly known as "Deanna" on UDBB -- and prior to that, as "DJD".


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