Diasporan Deer

This is a near replica of a diasporan design featured on a UGS postcard (Series 2, No. 47107). This pysanka incorporates many Hutsul-inspired motifs and uses a Hutsul color scheme.

Wheat with Wild Flowers (Revisited)

My own design and a remake of Wheat with Wild Flowers. I played around with changing how I drew the wheat, but I don't think it was an improvement.

Etz Chaim - Tree of Life (duck egg)

“It is a tree of life to all who grasp it, and whoever holds on to it is happy; its ways are ways of pleasantness, and all it paths are peace." (Proverbs 3:17-18)

This egg is an original design and I wrote it in celebration of my friend's daughter's bat mitzvah. The Tree of Life is a powerful symbol in the Jewish tradition for the wisdom of the Torah, and I enjoyed writing a version of it here. The reverse depicts a wave with a dove in reference to Noah and the flood, which was in her Torah portion. Sophie is an amazing chanter and it was an amazing event!

Please visit the full page to see all the other views of this egg!

Verdant Pastures

This pysanka was inspired by the folk pysanka featured in  Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 40, No. 14), but at this point has taken on a life of its own with a different color scheme and additional motifs. 

Hutsul Crosses

This is a near replica of a Hutsul pysanka from Kosmach featured in Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 41, No. 10). I did not quite get the desired contrast between the yellow and orange that I wanted. In the original, the orange is much more orange.

Adeeration of the Sun

This design is roughly based on two diasporan pysanky featured in Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 40, No. 1 and 2). I've changed the band a great deal, and altered the central rosette/sun motif.

Hutsul Horses

This pysanka is a modified replica of a folk pysanka featured in Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 49, No. 9). The motif on the ends of the egg is my own, since it is not entirely visible in the original picture. The placement/spacing of the horses and trees has more of a modern quality than the original. 

Pink Petals

This design is modified from a Hutsul folk pysanka from Kosmach featured in Elyjiw's Sixty Score of Easter Eggs (Table 51, No. 15). I changed the color scheme and some of the motifs.

Mexican Pottery

This design is based on a ceramic mug I bought in Mexico City this summer. Here, I've applied colored wax to a brown egg and left it on, such as in the Romanian style.

Dianthus

My own design.

Rams (Etched Duck Egg)

This design is based on a Hutsul division (usually depicting horses) popularized by Taras Horodetsky. The mottled colors you see are natural to the egg. The duck left large smears of dark bloom on the egg.

Lemko Drop-Pull Style

These are both Lemko designs reproduced with small modifications from a picture from Yulia Burko (Юлія Бурко). This technique uses a different stylus -- instead of writing with a heated funnel, a heated pin in dipped in molten wax and used to make strokes of wax on the egg shell.

Geometric with Windmills

My own design and close relative of Geometric with Stars. This division is an embellished variation on a folk division related to saddlebags or sakvy.

Galician Sleeves (Goose Egg)

I wrote this marvelously narrow goose egg at the Pysanky USA retreat using two Galician embroidery designs. I first wrote the white lines, dyed the egg red, wrote the red lines, then etched the egg back to white (only the large open spaces remained). Galicia (Halychyna) is a large historical region that spans part of eastern Poland into far western Ukraine.

Meandering Vine in Romanian Style (Duck Egg)

This egg is my own riff off of one of Karen Hanlon's Romanian Style class eggs at the Pysanky USA Retreat. In this style, wax colored with crayon wax is applied to the egg with a kiska and left on. Using coats of acrylic varnish allows you to add more colors without them mixing together.

Geometric with Stars

My own design inspired by a pysanka by Iryna Mykhalevych. This is a riff on a traditional division that is a variation of saddlebags.