Pysanky Egg Dying Get-Together

An unforeseen circumstance prevented me (Cathy) from attending this month's Take Joy Society get-together.  Thank you to Cindy for writing and photographing the following....

We did Pysanky eggs also known as Ukrainian eggs. Raw eggs are used because they dye better and the insides will dry up after many years. I pre-drew some of them, or they could choose to come up with their own design. The eggs were room temperature....

Here are some traditional designs. They have been making these eggs for centuries....

The tool is called a Kiska. It is like a very tiny funnel. You hold the Kiska over the flame of the candle, until it is hot, which just takes a few seconds. Then it is placed against the beeswax, which has a low melting point, and fills the funnel. The wax will not come out until you push it against the egg....

The whole process is wax resistance. On your drawing, you cover everything you want to keep white. Then you dye it your lightest color, which may be yellow. Then you remove it from the dye and dry it off and use the kiska to cover everything you want to keep yellow. Then you dye it in your next darkest color and continue until you are finished. Traditionally, the last color was black. But that rule has been broken many, many times....

Carol and Chris hard at work. Because we were working with dye, wore disposable gloves and aprons or smocks....

When all the colors are finished, the egg covered with wax is put inside an oven set at 200°. After several minutes the beeswax will wipe right off with a paper towel....

Here is the same egg with the wax wiped off. This one was made by Cindy....

Chris dyed her first color and is now covering with wax everything she wants to keep that color. Then it will be dyed the next color.... 

Her design is very subtle because her colors were close to the same value....

Carol had her two granddaughters with her ages four and six. This is the egg they made....

Chris made a delicious current poundcake from berries she picked. It was served with vanilla ice cream and we enjoyed some cinnamon apple, herbal tea and conversation....

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Thanks go to Cindy again for documenting this get-together.

Here is a tutorial with a bit of history that I found on YouTube for anyone interested in trying it.....

                           

There are lots of  other YouTube videos to check out if this design was too elaborate for you.

Take Joy!

Cathy