Tree of Life II (Goose Egg)

Today I'm posting a special pysanka I just made for a friend who recently moved back to her home country. It is a revision of the duck pysanka, Tree of Life , that I wrote in 2014. Using a goose egg gave me a lot more flexibility in color choice. (Of course, those pesky cracks around the drill hole never show up until you're committed.)

Drop Pull with Colored Waxes

Both of these designs are inspired by traditional dyed drop pull pysanky by Taras Hordetsky. Still a work in progress but I'm happy with the results.

Decorating eggs with color waxes that are not removed is a Romanian tradition. These waxes are the Green Envy and Sapphire waxes which some pysanka artists use for normal writing and removal with dyes. The red wax is a mixture of clear wax and a color block purchased from PysankyUSA.

Flying Close to the Sun II

I was working on this update to Flying Close to the Sun at the Pysanky USA Retreat, however the pysanka did not make it past red before rolling on the floor and breaking! I decided to clean off the wax anyway and am mystified at how well the colors work together despite being incomplete. I am planning to do some variations on this with this color scheme in mind. Pardon the "dirty" appearance as I couldn't completely clean the wax off because of the large cracks.

Many of the motifs in this pysanka are inspired by the work of Taras Horodetsky although the overall composition is my own work.

And after a long hiatus... some drop pull.

I just got back from the Pysanky USA Retreat. Up until then, I had been preparing various folk pysanky (which I will gradually post over time) and practicing drop pull for the two classes I taught. Today I'd like to share the two samples I made as examples for the drop pull class. You'll see that I'm still learning this technique. They are both based on pysanky from the Lemko/Lemkiv region, which is famous for its drop pull:

Near replica from Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 2, No. 26).

Adapted from a pysanka in Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 2, No. 14). The colors have been changed from white, yellow, and dark red to white, light blue, and dark blue. Clearly still working on my strokes here!

The drop pull technique does not use a kiska but instead uses a pin dipped in molten wax. The wax is applied by applying the pin to the egg and, once the drop hits the surface, tugging the pin down across the surface to create the stroke.

Fishing Nets (Updated)

Revised version of a pysanka I did in 2011. The design is based on a pysanka in the UGS 2011 catalog.

Hutsul Horse

Near replica of a Hutsul pysanka from Vira Manko's The Ukrainian Folk Pysanka (Table 16, No. 1, Kosmach, Kosiv region, Ivano-Frankivs'k Province.)

Happy Easter!

The annual photo session with this year's paska and some pysanky written my mom and me over the years (you might recognize some). Happy Easter!