Lacy Waves with Blue Flowers

A design based on a non-traditional Ukrainian division on a pysanka on the UGS website.

More Folk Pysanky

From Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 30, No. 3, from the Nemyriv region, Vinnytsia province). "Dubove lystia" or Oak Leaves. Oak leaves represent strength and persistence. 

Adapted from a pysanka featured in Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 30, No. 25, ). This is the "savky" or saddlebags division with star-rosettes. 

Adapted from pysanky in Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 30, No.'s 15 and 22, both from the Vinnytsia province). The colors have been changed from the traditional red or yellow and black to yellow and green. This pattern  makes a rosette pattern when you look down on the top of the pysanka.

From Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 38, No. 6, from Kamjanka, Novhorodka region, Kirovohrad province). A more faithful reproduction would probably have had a redder pink. This design forms a rosette that can be seen looking down on the pysanka.

Adapted from a pysanka in Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 29, No. 10, from the Yavorivka, Pishchanka region, Vinnytsia province). "Sosonka" or Little Pine. The background color has been changed from black to a dark green. I have also altered the "fill" of the leaves to look more like leaf veins instead of just stripes.
This design really charmed me... I'm going to revisit it a few more times.

I've been making many simpler, folk pysanky as I get ready for the Holiday Market coming up next weekend. I find the process of making the simpler patterns much different from the more intricate ones. They can be more frustrating because your mistakes are much more obvious. I also find I get strangely attached to them in the process of writing them.

You Spin Me Right Round

My own design -- a highly stylized "windmill" pattern.

A Snowflake from a "Ruzha" Pattern

This design is adapted from a folk pysanka in Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka. I've altered the colors to blues from red and yellow. The design origin is attributed to Kozats'ka Sloboda, Kurs'k region, in northeastern Ukraine (Table 37, No. 8).

Ruzhy

Mildly modified pysanka from Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 31, No. 12). The star-rosette (ruzha, plural is ruzhy) is the most popular symbol on pysanky and was originally a sun symbol and represents the source of life. After Christianization, it came to represent God's Love.

The Hills in Late Summer

Top

Bottom

My own design.

Fit to be Tied (and dyed!)

Getting into Holiday Market mode and making a few "oberih," which are hanging pysanky. These ornaments were a talisman for good luck and health, but I'm sure they can also be hung on a tree for holiday cheer!

Maggie Tarris Bauer provides excellent instructions for making oberih on her blog "Pysanky Basics" for those of you who'd like to hang your own pysanky.

Wheat Variations

My own design using the "barrel" division.  

My own design inspired by some straw and scratch egg designs. 

Wheat is the symbol of abundant harvest and health. This symbol also reminds Christians of the Eucharist. I've combined wheat with flower motifs in both of these pysanky -- flowers are symbols of love, charity, and good will.

Hutsul Design with Deer

This pysanka is patterned after is a typical Kosmach "barrel" design with checkered borders. There are two types of alternating windows on this egg, the cross and the deer. The cross motif is from a Hutsul pysanka in Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 65, No. 6).