Pysanky

[senior citizen]

pysanky images - Bing Images (http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=pysanky+images&qpvt=pysanky+images&FORM=IGRE)

With an early Easter a little over a month away now, and while shopping for little gifts for the grandchildren.......I remembered how we would make pysanky which is quite an art form.....when our own children were little........above are some images.

KEEP SCROLLING DOWN TO SEE ALL........

Wikipedia has all the instructions.........it's fun and they are preserved when all the work is done.........

Not only Ukrainians but Carpatho Rusyns, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Poles, etc. and Ruthenians (another name for early Ukrainians born in the Carpathian Mountain region like my maternal grandmother.........or "White Russians" as she used to say) kept this old tradition going..........
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pysanky

Long article on history and how to make them..........it's fun and they can be preserved.........

[rayschic]

They are beautiful. The patterns are so intricate. How long does it take to make one ?
Looks like it would be pretty hard to do. What a lovely tradition. Thanks for sharing.

[senior citizen]

They are beautiful. The patterns are so intricate. How long does it take to make one ?
Looks like it would be pretty hard to do. What a lovely tradition. Thanks for sharing.

The more intricate the design and layers of color, the longer it would take.
It's really hard to say. When my husband did it with our children it only took a day or two for ONE EGG.......8 or 10 layers of color.

Raw eggs. Draw first design, arbitrarily say, across in WAX.....LIQUID HOT WAX........WITH A NEEDLE OR HOT PEN????
Then you give it your first light coating of color with food dye.
Then you do your next design in wax......then you dye a shade darker.
Then you progressively work your way up to all the designs....etc.
Then you gently heat the egg and wipe off the wax.
This leaves the multicolored designs on the egg.
Then you make two tiny holes , one per each end , with a straight pin or larger.
Blow out the raw egg into a dish.
Now you can coat them with a varnish, etc. LOOK AT WIKIPEDIA.
These are shorthand basic instructions.
For more intricate designs it could take many weeks.