It's been years since I've done pysanky, or mebbe I'd better call these “pysanky” because I've strayed pretty far from the tradition; partly because we no longer have exchange students to whom we wish to expose the US custom of dyeing eggs, and not least because the pandemic sort put a damper on this sort of celebration.
This is what I use to park the eggs while they're drying. It's been so long since I dyed eggs that the pins rusted out!
Perhaps wooden toothpicks would be a better choice.
Here I'm set up with dye, eggs, wax, stylus, candle, and my home-made egg rest.
But, I wanted to support Ukraine with this nod to this part of their culture, to which I was introduced at the International Center some three decades ago—they had various groups perform dances native to their countries, and vendors selling stuff that was (mostly) related to the various countries [1] . The Ukrainian table sold kits (and probably the finished eggs as well) and I was immediately intrigued, so I bought one.
The first lot of eggs...
I've never done this craft regularly enough to get really good at it, and now I'm especially out of practise, as you see.
Perhaps studio photography will help...
I picked out the better of the two eggs to photograph before taking them over to friends...
Another view
And really, I thought the purple and green one wasn't too bad, though the it looked a lot better in memory than it does in these images.
C'est la vie. I tried.
[1]with a few odds and ends such as local bead-stringers. Not really sure how the organizers justified me, but they assured me it was kosher—I guess I represented hand-made American craft;)
Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.
