Pysanky Eggs

Our internet service was down all afternoon so I didn't get this post up early today like I intended.

I wanted to show you the pictures of the kids working at their Easter project.

We learned pysanky also called Ukrainian eggs. I took a class to learn this craft many years ago.

It's been fun to teach kids how to do it.

We decorate the eggs the old traditional way with little wooden kistka tools.
I get all my supplies including the intensely colored dyes from this Ukrainian gift shop.

The process of decorating the eggs is using the stylus tool for drawing the bees wax onto the egg shell and dyeing the eggs in a succession of colors.

First the stylus is loaded with beeswax by scraping the cone of the tool across the wax.



Then the wax is melted by holding the tool over a flame. You can bet the little boys love this part. Art class with permission to play with fire!



It takes a lot of practice to get a nice line of melted wax to come out of the stylus onto the egg just where you want it to go.



After each design with wax is complete, the egg is dipped in dye starting with the lightest colors and working up to the darker colors last.

Alyssa followed some intricate traditional patterns, marking them with a pencil first.

This occupied the kids for several hours.

With practice, each egg became prettier and more well done.

The dyes make beautiful colors. It's interesting to see a yellow egg become green and a green egg become blue.



Here they are when the designs are finished- the eggs are covered in wax and ready for the final step. They now go into an warm oven to melt off the wax.

After a few minutes the wax is melted. Given a rub they become shiny and smooth.

Our finished Pysanky eggs!