Easter's Most Elegant Eggs

Enlarge Image Image Gallery

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Give the Easter Bunny some competition! Supplement your income with...

For over 2,500 years, the art of egg decoration known as pysanky (pronounced "pee-sahn-kee") has been practiced in the Ukraine. Originally, this craft formed an integral part of that culture's religious tradition, since the egg was a pagan symbol for the rebirth of spring. And, when the Ukrainian people were converted to Christianity, they simply incorporated the new religion's various motifs into their traditional ones and continued to practice this delicate art.

Today, however, the craft is dying out in its home country, but pysanky is still kept alive by small groups of Ukrainians in the United States and Canada. I have always loved the art, and—once 1 mastered the technique — I discovered that such eggs (which cost me 11¢ to decorate) could sell for anywhere from $2.50 to $15!

THE MATERIALS

It only takes about $5.00 worth of materials to get ready to make these charming little masterpieces. All you need are some intact eggs (raw or blown hollow), a few ounces of beeswax, a supply of fairly tall, thin candles, a set of prepared dyes, and a small stylus known as a kistka . . . which is the one tool that's essential for this craft.

The kistka—as shown in Fig. 1—is just a tiny funnel set into a hole in the end of a short stick. To make the funnel, simply twist a small piece of brass or copper foil into a hollow cone with a 1/4"-wide base and a minuscule hole at the small end. Remember that, although the funnel doesn't have to be structurally strong, it does have to hold heated wax ... so coil it as tightly as possible.

Then, in order to protect the wooden handle while the wax is heated over a candle flame, wind No. 22 to No. 24 wire just forward and aft of the funnel ... or cover this area with very thin sheet metal or foil.

As for the other supplies, a pound of beeswax should last through a few dozen eggs, and it is available from beekeepers, fabric shops which sell batik supplies, art and hobby shops, and some candle stores.

Any cold-water dyes will work for pysanky decoration. The food-colors of the American Easter egg tradition, however, aren't usually as bright and permanent as you might want. Strong chemical dyes can, of course, be used . . . since the decorated eggs are much too pretty to eat! But if you want the super-intense hues used by many "pysanky people", you'll have to order your dyes—for about 30¢ per color—from the Ukrainian Gift Shop, 2422 Central Avenue N.E., Minneapolis, Minnesota 55418. (You can get their catalog for 25¢, and—for $8.98 plus $1.25 postage and handling—the Gift Shop will send you a pysanky kit which contains three kistkas, beeswax, 12 dyes, and instructions.)

THE PROCESS

The principle behind pysanky is akin to the more well-known, wax-resist art of batik.
To begin, place just enough beeswax in the funnel of the kistka to fill it. Then, heat the funnel directly over the candle flame until the wax reaches its melting point. (Be careful not to overdo it, or your beeswax will boil out of the funnel ... or expand too much and produce globby lines when you draw on the egg.) Test the kistka on a piece of paper before you begin your first project ... to be sure that just a thin line of wax flows out the tiny hole in the funnel. (The grip I've found most feasible for holding the kistka is shown in Fig. 2.)

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print