Tree of Life with Swallows

My own design based on a diasporan division. On this pysanka, I wrote the gold lines first, preceded through to black, and then etched back to get the final white spaces.

Leafy Vine Folk Pysanka from Podillya

This folk design comes from a collection of illustrations of pysanky from Podillya (Podolia) in southwestern Ukraine (courtesy of Vira Manko via Luba Petrusha). I've altered the colors here so that the background is dark green; in the original folk pysanka the background is black.

Love in a Mist (Duck Egg)

I adapted this avtorska (non-traditional art egg) from a wallpaper design by the arts and crafts movement artist C.F.A. Voysey ("Love-in-a-mist" 1928). I wrote lines on white first, filled in the purple with a brush (applying some shading technique I learned from Mark Malachowski), wrote over the purple, dyed the egg green and wrote the green lines, then etched the egg back to white.

Cross with Pussy Willow

This is a diasporan design adapted from a pysanka featured in Ukrainian Easter Eggs and How We Make Them (Egg No. 2).

Embroidered Stars (Turkey Egg)

Fig 3-8 "Eyelet and overcast drawn-work are used together to form a beautiful sleeve on a woman's shirt." From Ukrainian Embroidery, by Ann Kmit, Johanna Luciow, and Loretta Luciow (Ukrainian Gift Shop, 1984).

I developed this design from an embroidery pattern featured in Ukrainian Embroidery by Ann Kmit, Johanna Luciow, and Loretta Luciow. Working from embroidery patterns can be tricky because the white portions are more disperse and colored regions have more a stronger structural role (such as the red lines that divide up the space with the stars). 

Hutsul Pysanka with Creeping Vine

A modified version of a Hutsul pysanka featured in Zenon Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 66, No. 8).

Trillium

My own design using the Forty-eight Days of Lent / Sorokolyn division.

Trypillian Eggs

Although the motifs are ancient and come from pottery made by the Trypillians, a Neolithic–Eneolithic archaeological people in Eastern Europe (ca. 4800 to 3000 BC), adapting these designs to pysanky is a fairly modern task. The designs are fairly challenging since they involve more curved lines than traditional or diasporan pysanky. Both of these designs have been written from unknown online sources.

Folk Pysanky from Podillya

 

These folk designs come from illustrations of pysanky from Podillya (Podolia) in southwestern Ukraine (courtesy of Vira Manko via Luba Petrusha). They both feature floral motifs.

Floral Stained Glass Egg (Brown Chicken Egg)

This is an etched brown chicken egg that I learned how to do taking a class from Karen Hanlon at the PysankyUSA Retreat this year. I based the design on an Arts and Crafts style window from Osler-Kurki Studio. Initial lines were made on the natural brown surface of the egg, the egg was dyed, etched, and dyed again. The light and dark pink and green shades are made using the same dye, but on the brown or etched white surface of the egg.

Stained Glass Thistle (Goose Egg)

This past week/weekend I had the pleasure of attending the PysankyUSA retreat in Wilkes-Barre, PA. One of the techniques I learned was this "stained glass" technique from Karen Hanlon. I based this design on windows designed for the James A Patten House by George W. Maher. 

Churches Folk Pysanka

A near-replica of a pysanka featured in Zenon Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 67, No. 12) from Storozhynetsʹ, Bukovyna.

Marigolds

This is my own design based on the savky (saddlebags) division.

Stylized Mallow Flowers

This is my own design using some traditional motifs. Mallow flowers actually have five petals but most flowers on pysanky are fantastical, anyway.

Hutsul Cross

A near-replica of a Hutsul pysanka featured in Zenon Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 68, No. 7).

Grape Vine

The medallion of this pysanka is borrowed from material from Luba Perchyshyn, the banding patterns are my own variations on traditional meanders. In the diasporan tradition, grapes signify a long-lived and loyal love. The meanders here also suggest an infinite quality.

Kosmach Folk Pysanka

Slightly modified from a pysanka in Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 13, No. 8) from Ivano-Frankivs'k Province, Kosmach, Kosiv region.

Folk Pysanky from Lviv Province

This pysanka is in the Sokal style with random placement of flowers and leaves (Table 6, No. 1, Sokal Region).

Alternate view of Table 6, No. 1. This pysanka was created by writing the first lines on a yellow-dyed egg, continuing with green and red, then etching back to white in vinegar.

Slightly modified from Table 6, No. 35. 

Both of these pysanky are featured in Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka.