Pysanky Eggs

Did I mention to you all (or should I say y'all?) that we were heading due South for a long weekend of fun in Oklahoma?

No? Oops...

Well...we went to Oklahoma last weekend so visit college friends, get a dose of sunshine, Spring and Oklahoma red dirt. Plus we got to see the Medieval Fair in Norman.



Okay...I'll write another post on our fantastic trip to Oklahoma in a minute.

Right now I'm dying to show you a couple of eggs I made with the help of my great friend Christina.


I'm sure you've seen Ukrainian Pysanky eggs before...they're the ones that make you wonder "How in the world did they do that?" Christina ordered a Pysanky kit for us to try. I admit- when I looked at the step by step diagrams I didn't think I was smart enough to figure it out. Made me dizzy just looking at it! Are you sure you don't need to be a rocket scientist to create these? No? Okay...I'll give it a try! Fortunately, with their being two of us we managed to figure it out and create two of them.


I'm bummed that we didn't take photos of the progress- these eggs are labor INTENSIVE! I think it took us close to three hours to create one egg (we each created an egg). Basically- you sketch the drawing on the egg (which is at room temperature!) with a pencil. Then you use a special tool called a kitska to "write" on the egg with melted beeswax...and then you dye the egg. You repeat this process over and over with various dyes with the last step being the black dye. After the egg is dried from the last dye you very carefully melt the beeswax off to reveal your design. I will also admit that it helped having one or two glasses of wine while doing this project!



After that's done you poke a hole in your egg and blow it out- perhaps without crushing the egg in the process. Look closely at the right egg... I bet you can guess that some very nasty words were said by me after I very nearly crushed the egg I'd been working on for a few hours. (I hope only the grown-ups heard me). Fortunately I think it's okay- I'll just put a lot of varnish on it. If you don't think it's gonna be okay I don't want to hear about it!



I'm off to order one of those kits for myself. I'm going to work on making Pysanky eggs throughout the year and maybe by next Easter I'll have some real beauties to share. Oh...and perhaps I'll be able to do a tutorial on them (with Christina's help...right Christina?).


Many thanks Christina for introducing me to this beautiful egg coloring technique! (and thanks for a great weekend...that'll be another post!)

eta- I've just ordered my kit! I'll post photos and do a tutorial (it'll be funny- a beginner doing a tutorial!) on making them. Perhaps also show what NOT to do! LOL!