Embroidered Sleeve

This design was adapted from a diasporan pysanka from a UGS postcard. I've kept the motifs nearly exactly the same, but inverted the color scheme by starting with red, proceeding to black, and then etching back to white. The large amount of white with leading red lines reminded me of Ukrainian embroidery.

Etched Winter Trees

Two experiments of mine with etching back brown chicken eggs. The first was etched with vinegar in several steps to get different shades of brown. The second was a lighter egg dyed several times before a final etch.

Last Autumn Flowers

The overall design of this egg is based on a diasporan design featured in a UGS postcard. I have changed the color scheme as well as many of the design elements.

Folk Pysanka with Alternating Petals

This was loosely replicated from a folk pysanka posted by Luba Petrusha that was from Chernivtsi, Bukovyna.  Overall, my changes just made the pattern more regular. The "border" petals ended up being less visible from the front of the egg. Also, I just realized that I added an extra petal to make the main flower symmetrical (eight petals instead of seven).

Winter Wheat

This design was adapted from a diasporan pysanka on a UGS postcard. I've changed the details of some of the motifs and modified some of the colors.

Floral Folk Pysanka

This pysanka was copied from an illustration of a folk pysanka from the village of Lobachov, Tarashchanskyi raion, Kyiv oblast, from the early 20th century.

Rams with Lily of the Valley

My own design using a tree of life motif.

Winter Grazers

This is my own design riffing off a common Hutsul division and some Hutsul motifs.

Folk Cross with Star

This folk design comes from a picture Luba Petrusha posted of a sample of pysanky from the Zabolotiv Easter Market in the village Illintsi, Sniatyn raion, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast. This is in the ethnographic region of Pokuttia in western Ukraine.

Verdant Geese (Duck Egg)

Whew! It's been a while! I just got back from the PysankyUSA retreat and am looking forward to carving out time to write pysanky now that feel so inspired! Today I'm sharing an original design that I completed at the retreat. I was really pleased with the amount of color variation I could get with the yellows, oranges, and greens for this egg using the Colorama dyes.

Floral Folk Pysanky

Adapted from from Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 36, No. 15),  "Kvitky," (Flowers), Chernihiv Province. This is an interesting pattern that looks free-form but in fact divides the egg into two faces. The flower here appears much pinker than the original, which is probably a deep red.

Adapted from Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 36, No. 2), "Syttseva," (Chintz), Krolevets', Sumy Province. Another design that looks free-form, but actually has the egg divided into quadrants, each with its own alternating flower motif. Here, fanciful flowers and leaves are thrown together. Oak leaves are apparent (which I've divided and shaded only half, which was not done in the original, to create better contrast) among the more nondescript leaves. This pysanka was first dyed green, washed back to pink, then etched to white. 

I had to make some of this face of the pysanka up as I didn't have a good view of it in Manko's book. 

Both of these lovely floral patterns are from northern regions in Ukraine that often use bright patterns using green, yellow, and red. The green is particularly striking if one is used to looking at folk designs from Western Ukraine. In both cases here, I've used pinks instead of reds for aesthetic effect.

Deer that Graze in Frozen Fields

This pysanka was inspired by a diasporan pysanka in a UGS postcard that had a traditional color scheme but a similar barrel division and deer motif. Everything else has shifted and changed quite a bit -- I've taken out a lot of the resheto, or cross-hatching, that was in the original, and I've altered the details of the crosses.

A Twist on Hustul Fish

I adapted this pysanka from a Hutsul design I posted recently (Hutsul Fish), mostly making changes in the color combination (entirely modern, here) and the placement of the fish.