Pysanky

Yesterday I spent the day with Maria Leysens.

( see her blog link on the side of my blog)

Maria was teaching a class on Ukrainian Easter Egg decorating or Pysanky.

From her handout,"Legend has it that as long as pysanky are

decorated, goodness will prevail over evil throughout the world".

Okay, I'm in. Bring on the eggs.

Examples of traditional pysanky.

Straight lines, complicated designs and small work space,

I'm breaking out in hives, this is so not my style!

Remembering, goodness over evil. The world is counting on me.

I press on.

I decide to learn the techniques and go from there.

Maria had the eggs prepared for us. She poked small holes in the eggs and removed the yokes.

We then filled the holes with black bees wax so dye wouldn't make its way inside the shells.

The best way to explain the process is to show an example.

( I made my own design, less stress)

First you draw your design on the egg with a pencil.

Then cover anything you want to keep white with bees wax. I made white high lights.

The egg was then dipped in pink dye. The parts I wanted to keep pink I covered in bees wax.

Next, the egg was dyed purple. The parts I wanted to keep purple were then cover in wax.

Then the egg was dyed blue, again blue parts were covered in wax.

The last color was black.

Maria made homemade wire springs to hold the eggs deep inside the jars.

Maria keeps the dyes and uses them year after year.

The dyes we used yesterday are 6 years old. She said she adds a bit of vinegar each year.

The dyes store well in the jars from year to year.

After your eggs are through with the dying process the wax needs to be removed.

We held our eggs next to a candle flame. As the wax melted we wiped it off with paper napkins.

Before the wax was removed.

After the wax was removed.

Magic!

 This egg is my own design loosely based on one I saw in a pysanky design book.

I was going for a New Mexico "look".

I will take another pysanky class with Maria,

it was fun and relaxing.

Plus, good needs to prevail over evil and I'm willing to do my part!