What colors would you use on a pysanka?

Answer 1

As with symbols, colors have true symbolism only in traditional Ukrainian folk pysanky, those designs created over the centuries and used for talismanic purposes. Modern pysanky, their colors and symbols, have only the meanings that we personally assign to them. Symbols and colors have to be considered within the whole of the design of the egg, not as individual components. Different localities may have assigned them different meanings--this should be taken into consideration as well. That being said, some generally accepted meanings for the colors used on pysanky are given below. ColorsYellow: Light, wisdom, spirituality, recognition and reward. Green: Spring, hope, growth, victory of life over death, bountifulness. Orange: Endurance, strength, attraction, everlasting sun. Red: Divine love and passion of Christ, spiritual awakening, happiness in life. Blue: Good health, trust. Pink: Success. Black: Death, remembrance, absolute constancy, fear of ignorance. White: Purity Brown: The earth Purple: Patience and trust

Answer 2

It depends on whether you are making a traditional pysanka or a more modern one. Traditional pysanky have a fairly limited palette of dye colors, as the dyes were largely botanical in origin, made from locally grown plants. Most traditional pysanky have white (the eggshell) and some combination of these colors: yellow, gold, green, orange, red (various shades from pink to burgundy), brown and black. Blue, while lovely, was hard to produce and was seen only rarely. Most pysanky had only two or three colors besides white. Modern pysanky are usually made using commercial acid (aniline) dyes, the same dyes that are used to dye silk, nylon and wool. These dyes come in a rainbow of colors. In both cases, the pysanky are dyed beginning with the lightest color and ending with the darkest.