Pysanky Egg Art

If you have a goose egg or smaller, cap the hole (or holes) with beeswax. To do this, make a tiny ball of wax, flatten it into a disc, and place it over the hole. Then use your kistka to "seal" the edges where the disc of wax meets the shell. You can either roll the egg around in the dye, or, if you need more color saturation, hold the egg down in the dye using a spoon or a capped jar of water as a weight. Be sure to rotate the egg gently every 5 minutes or so to avoid base spots where the dye will not adhere to the shell where it was touching the surface of the dye jar. After you remove the egg from the dye, immediately remove the cap. Dry the egg with paper towels, and if it seems that dye got inside the egg, twist a piece of Kleenex into a point and insert it into the hole in the egg. Invert it and let it dry out overnight before re-dyeing. For more information about pysanky, or Ukrainian egg decorating, see the "Pysanky Egg Art" category under Hobbies and Collectibles/Arts and Crafts.

In Ukrainian, the intricate, decorative sort of Easter eggs, not the ones made for eating, are called "pysanky" (singular "pysanka"). The art of making them is called "pysankarstvo" in Ukrainian, or simply "pysanka making" in English. The actual process (using wax and dyes) is commonly referred to as "batik."

There are two factors affecting storage -- whether or not the egg has been emptied, and what kind of varnish was used to protect the shell. Whole eggs, whether hard-boiled or raw, are subject to the possibility of "exploding," releasing an almost unbearable stench. Gases build up inside these eggs, and if they are able to escape through the pores of the shell and dissipate over time, they may not explode. However, if the egg is stored in an airtight container, or varnished, the gases can build up over time and suddenly cause the egg to explode. To be on the safe side, most pysanky artists empty their eggs and rinse out the insides. Good artists will use a high-quality varnish that protects the shell from ultraviolet light, which means that it can be stored in normal home conditions without risk of the dye fading. (I would not recommend direct sunlight, however.) See here for detailed information: http://web.mac.com/lubap/Storing_and_Displaying/Storage.html You can also go directly to the web page by clicking on the "related link" below.

A natural pink dye for eggs can be made using beets, cranberries or juice, raspberries, red grape juice, or juice from pickled beets.

If you wish to make hard-boiled Easter eggs, boil the eggs in water with the dye material and a tablespoon of vinegar, and then simmer for about 15 minutes.

If making pysanky, soak the eggs in the juice or a boiled fruit/vegetable solution (with added vinegar).

Many western countries incorporate the concept of Easter bunnies delivering Easter eggs. This tradition hails originally from Germany, so it is countries with Germanic/British roots which have this custom. It does not exist traditionally in the rest of the west, although, through children's television, the Easter Bunny is making some inroads into other cultures.

Easter bunny believing countries include the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, New Zealand and Australia (although there are moves to try to promote an Easter bilby, as proceeds from sales go to the preservation of this endangered creature).

Most European (and western) cultures decorate eggs for Easter, usually by simply dyeing them one color. Ukraine and other Eastern European countries have a long history of more intricate egg decoration in the spring. You can find out more about Ukrainian eggs, called Pysanky, in the "Pysanky Egg Art" section of Wiki Answers, under Hobbies and Collectibles/Arts and Crafts (see link below).

The giving of Easter eggs has transcended political borders, though not necessarily religious borders. For example, the countries most likely to celebrate with eggs and bunnies are those where Christianity has made the greatest inroads - but again, it is not limited to these countries. In general, it can be said that cultures and traditions that were once restricted to particular countries are crossing borders with increasing regularity. Countries around the world are seeing a flow-on effect of some festivals and holidays, not only with the spread of western influences, but also with the spread of Christianity. Thus, you will find a prevalence of Easter eggs and Easter bunnies in countries such as Japan, China and many other Asian nations.

Countries of the Middle East are not exempt from the traditions, with Easter eggs (along with Easter bunnies and Easter cakes) being found in Israel. Saudi Arabia even markets a "date-filled Easter egg". African Christians celebrate Easter with joy, in particular remembering Christ's death and resurrection, but they also embrace the practice of giving Easter eggs. Easter celebrations are also important to the more remote Pacific nations and, by association, Easter eggs and bunnies have become part of those celebrations.

Brown eggs will dye just like any other color of egg. Brown chicken egg shells are a bit thicker and sometimes glossier. They take longer to dye, and thus may need a longer soak in vinegar rinse prior to dyeing. The colors will look quite different as well. Brown eggs cannot be made white unless you "etch" the shell using vinegar. Brown eggs are quite lovely, and look nice with colors such as yellow, orange, brick, brown, and black. To see how different colors of dye look on brown eggs, click on the link below.

It depends upon the complexity of the design and the skill of the person writing it. A simple design in the hands of an expert can take 15 minutes; and complex pysanka can take several hours.

A complex design on a large egg--goose or ostrich--can take several days.

Not just any colored water will dye a raw egg. You need dye molecules of some sort (aniline, food coloring, onion skins, Kool-Aid, the like) in an acid solution (e.g. vinegar) that can bind to the protein cuticle of the eggshell. When eggs are cooked, the cuticle may be destroyed, and dyes will not take as readily, although they can still adhere to the calcium-protein matrix of the shell itself. If an egg is blown out (emptied), the shell will still change color when placed in the dye.

An egg decorated using the wax batik method is commonly known as a "Pysanka." This traditional Ukrainian art form involves applying melted wax to the egg's surface to create intricate designs, which are then dyed in various colors. The wax resists the dye, allowing for a layered and complex pattern to emerge once the wax is removed. Pysanky are often created during the Easter season and hold cultural significance in Ukrainian heritage.

A Ukrainian Easter egg, it is made with wax and dyes using a batik method.

The dye binds to the protein in an egg shell; this is an animal protein, similar to silk or wool. The same types of dyes that work on silk or wool will also dye eggs. The dye molecules bind, both directly and via hydrogen bonds, to protein molecules in the eggshell.

The dyes used to dye eggs are acid dyes, called that because they work best in an acid environment. Vinegar is an acid, and adding it to the dye solution makes it more acid, and potentiates both types of binding.

There are many ways to display pysanky, but you should never to display them in direct sunlight. Aniline dyes will fade when placed in prolonged sunlight, making your pysanka dull and drab. (It's probably a good idea to keep the eggs out of any strong direct light to avoid fading.) Also, if the pysanka hasn't been emptied, the heat from the sun or other light source could cause the gases within it to expand and the egg to explode.

Pysanky are small works of art, and should be treated as such. They may be displayed in baskets or bowls, in individual egg holders, hung from a stand, or placed in specially made display cabinets. If you have many pysanky to display and not enough room, then a riser might be useful.

It is best to avoid this problem by not getting the dye onto your kitchen table in the first place. When dyeing eggs, cover the work area with newspapers or a plastic tablecloth.

If you do get dye onto the table, there are several ways to get it off. The simplest is to use some dish soap and a damp sponge or cloth, and just wash it off. This will often be all you need.

If the stain is a bit more stubborn, a cleanser like Soft Scrub works really well. Get the kind without bleach. Test a small inconspicuous area first. If that is successful then you should have no trouble getting it off your table. Be gentle, don't scrub too hard or you will scratch the table.

In the worst case, you may need to use bleach. Bleach does not wash the dye off, it breaks the molecule up in such a way that it no longer reflects color. Bleach always works to remove egg dyes, but may damage the table. As before, test it in an inconspicuous area to make sure it can be used safely.

WOoden tables may be stained permanently, as the dye can get into the grain of the wood. Plastic or laminate surfaces usually clean up quit easily.

Of course it's okay to dye a duck egg for Easter. Traditionally, chicken eggs were the eggs of choice for making pysanky, but any egg that was handy could be used: goose, duck, swan. Today pysanka artists use duck, chicken, and goose eggs to create traditional patterns, and quail, turkey, rhea, and ostrich eggshells to make non-traditional ones. Duck eggs have a tougher outer coat to protect them, and often do not accept the dye as readily as chicken eggs. This may result in a more pastel final effect. You can try cleaning the surface of the egg really well with vinegar to see if that helps. Have fun!

The eggs are not painted, they are dyed with a batik process.

The wax is applied with a tool called a stylus (English) or a pysachok or kistka/kystka (Ukrainian).

Scratch carved eggs (called dryapanky in Ukrainian) are first dyed, and then a design scratched on with a sharp tool. They can be dyed both with chemical dyes (e.g. the aniline dyes sold for making pysanky) and with natural dyes (from botanical sources). The botanical dyes, while longer-lasting and less prone to fading, are more difficult to work with--plant materials have to be collected, boiled, strained, mordant added, and then the egg soaked for 24 hours or longer.

A chemical solution (either natural or industrial) used to color eggshells. The dye is composed of water and the pigment molecules, which bind to the surface of an egg. Most dyes used for coloring eggs are mildly acidic.

How do you fix a weeping egg? Empty Dyed Eggshells: If the egg has already been blown out, but has not yet been varnished or coated entirely with beeswax, try this: # Turn the egg hole-down, place a twist of tissue inside to wick away the moisture, and let it drain for several hours. # Remove the tissue and let the egg dry out COMPLETELY for about a week. # Cap the hole with wax, and dunk the egg back into the final dye color until it looks right. Sometimes this requires double-dipping, and in rare cases even requires a Simple Green wash and more dyeing. It doesn't usually matter if some dye gets into the egg at this point, and even if you seal the hole well with wax, dye will seep inside anyway through the pores. Just be sure to wick it out immediately with a tissue, before it has time to work its way back out through the pores of the shell. Watch closely -- you want to leave the tissue in long enough to drain out the moisture, but not long enough to dry out. If any kind of seal forms, either from a dry tissue, or from leaving in the wax plug, or from the flap of membrane closing over, or even from liquid collecting near the hole, then the gas inside the egg will force excess liquid out through the pores and ruin the dye on the shell. # Dry the egg out for a day before melting off the wax; even a little bit of residual fluid will come out through the pores if the egg is heated too soon. If you do get seepage through the pores in the shell, you can repeat the above process and be more careful. Full Eggs: If you are working with a full egg, weeping through the shell is usually due to the breakdown of the inner membrane of the egg. This membrane normally keeps the white and yolk intact inside the shell. As the egg and its contents age, this membrane can sometimes break down, resulting in amber-colored excrescences forming on the shell of the egg. If you notice these small excrescences beforestarting a pysanka, throw the egg out. It is almost always rotten. If you have already invested time and effort into an egg, it can still be saved if you haven't removed the wax yet. Stop, blow out the egg, and rinse it out throroughly. The contents will be quite foul. (One word: Febreeze.) Let the egg dry out properly (at least overnight), and then plug the hole(s) with a bit of wax, and re-acidify (vinegar rinse) and re-dye the egg. With luck, this should solve your problem. If you're removing the wax when you notice the excrescences, oh, well.....not much to be done. If your pysanka doesn't look too bad, empty it before varnishing, as these lumps can form under the varnish as well and make your egg look even worse.

Any acid aniline-type dye can be used to dye pysanky. You can buy acid dyes meant to dye wools and silks from many distributors on line. Some carry large numbers of different dyes. Dharma and Jacquard sell 52 and 40 colors each; other suppliers may have even more.

Several individuals and small pysanka supply companies have blended colors and repackaged the dyes into small packets, with just enough of the powdered dye to make about 1.5 cups of liquid dye. They include:

Pysanky Showcase sells about 40 colors of dyes.

The Ukrainian Gift Shop sells 17.

Egg-cessories and Surma each sell 13.

Wax Art Supply sells 31.

Quite frankly, there are more colors out there than any one individual can really use!

Technically, eggs decorated in this way would be called batik eggs. Ukrainians call this sort of decorated egg a pysanka. Other Eastern European nationalities also decorate eggs in this manner, and give them various names:

* Belarusians (pisanka) * Bulgarians (писано яйце, pisano yaytse) * Czechs (kraslice) * Lithuanians (margutis) * Poles (pisanka) * Romanians (ouă vopsite, incondeiate or impistrite) * Serbs (pisanica) * Slovaks (kraslica) * Slovenes (pisanica or pirh)

There are two ways that pysanky artists achieve a stained-glass effect. One is to wax a white egg in the desired pattern, then apply dye to spots on the egg using either a paintbrush or some other application tool, such as a toothpick, a bamboo skewer, or a craft micro-applicator. The other method is to dye the egg black, wax the egg, bleach it back to white, and apply dye in the manner described above. A variation of this method is to dop the entire egg into the desired colors of dye (working from light to dark) and waxing over the areas to retain the dye color before each successive dye bath. I have found it to be quite difficult to apply black wax to a black egg when the black is the FIRST dye bath. This approach definitely requires the use of strong light and a magnifying glass! It is helpful to have white wax on hand for waxing dark coloured eggs. White wax can be made by simply adding a white crayon to your wax, then you will be able to see your lines.

Chicken eggs purchased at a grocery store are usually quite clean. You don't need to do much to do anything to prepare them, unless, of course, they appear soiled. Examine them closely--if there is any foreign matter on the surface, give them a gentle wash with mild dish soap (e.g. Ivory original scent). Soiled eggs, or eggs obtained from a farm, should be washed gently in lukewarm water with a mild soap (e.g. Ivory original scent). Avoid strong detergents or other cleaning agents. Although you can scrub persistent dirt with a scotch-brite (or similar) cleaning pad, you risk scratching the shell. Instead of using an abrasive pad, you can try using baking soda and a sponge or even your finger to scrub off soiled areas. Don't scrub any more than is absolutely necessary to avoid scratches on the surface of the shell. These scratches might show up after you dye the egg. Rinse the eggs with clean, tepid water and let the eggs air dry on a dishcloth or towel. Do not leave them sitting in water, or in small amounts of puddled water. This can cause them to dye unevenly later. That's it. You should always check your eggs carefully for cracks; candling (holding them in front of a bright light and looking for cracks) is a good way of doing this. (You may see some thin fine lines, which are not cracks in the egg but are tears in the inner membrane.) Hold the egg up to the light and look carefully -- an egg is your canvas, and should be in great shape before you invest hours in creating a work of art!

"Kistka" (or "kystka") is the name given to the tool used to make pysanky in some areas of western Ukraine.

A kistka works by allowing hot beeswax to flow through a tiny funnel, like ink through a pen. When the wax is hot and the kistka is applied to an egg, the wax flows out onto the shell and hardens immediately.

There is no one perfect way to hold a kistka, so you can experiment to find a way that is both comfortable for you and allows the wax to flow freely.

You can read about how to use a traditional kistka at the link below.