E is for Easter Eggs!
One of my family’s traditions is to make pysanka or Ukrainian Easter Eggs. Pysanka are made using wax and dyes to make beautiful designs.
I made mine this past weekend and took pictures along the way. It’s a fun and easy project, though it takes a bit to get used to ‘drawing’ on the egg with wax. I’ve loved making these since I was a kid. For those of you with youngsters around, I highly suggest picking up this tradition as it has always made Easter extra special for me.
First, you need certain materials. I got a small pack off Amazon for $10. It had one kistka (wooden tool used to ‘write’ with), one chunk of beeswax, six dyes and a set of patterns.
Wherever you ‘write’ with the beeswax on the egg is where the color will stay. After you are finished ‘writing,’ place the egg in whatever dye color you’d like (keeping in mind that you must start with the lighter colors). Wait a few minutes and Ta-da! Your egg is died!
Keep going with the process. Writing where you want the dye to stay and dying the rest of the egg.
Finished product! The only thing left to do is take off the wax.
Actually, finished product! I’m really awful at taking the wax off and usually peel it off with my fingernails (bad, bad). If you do these, I suggest looking up online how to really take off the wax.
These look amazing! I saw similar looking eggs in Romania. Ah, if only I had an artistic streak…
Wow! What a fun and beautiful process.
Cara
Juliana, your eggs are beautiful!! I have been wanting to do these for my boyfriend for several years now. His family is Ukrainian but are spread out all over the place, so he doesn’t get to participate in holiday traditions too often. So glad you reminded me! I think you’re well on your way to making some like the top picture 😀
Those are beautiful. All I got to do when I was little was the Paas egg dying. Fun, but now I want to try that. lol
I had no idea you could do such intricate designs with eggs. Great job Juliana. They are spectacular.
OMG! Your eggs are gorgeous! (And totally put anything I could ever do to shame – can you say one solid color? :)) Wow!!
Your eggs are gorgeous — look out Martha Stewart!
Ohmygosh! You guys crack me up 🙂 I’m glad you like them so much. They’re incredibly fun to make 🙂
If only I could invite you all over for a egg making party! Haha 🙂
Oh my gosh! Your eggs are BEAUTUFUL!!!! I always sucked at decorating eggs. Though I’m an artist, it’s simply NOT my medium!!
This is so cool! Thanks for sharing this! I’ve seen these types of eggs before but I never had any idea how they were made. Didn’t know it was actually so (relatively) simple!
Very artistic. Looks like a great family tradition.
Holy crap–those three are yours?! Juliana, I’m SUPER impressed! They are gorgeous–almost too nice to ever crack and eat!
Thanks for this little tutorial. You have no idea how amazed I am right now. This was always some magical process in my mind. 🙂
I did a workshop making these a few years ago, it was a lot of fun. I should have done it with my classes.
I do Pysanka too, almost every year. But why are you scared of taking off the wax? Do you burn the egg? I always stick mine in the side of the flame rather than the top, to keep it from going black. It’s still tricky business, but… that and goo-gone gets pretty much all of it.
If you want to see what mine look like, you can see them here:
http://tsirachel.deviantart.com/gallery/29561519