And Then I Cracked It

A good friend of mine has been making Ukrainian Easter Eggs known as Pysanky.  I have always loved these eggs.  My Grandparents had a few over the years that they had brought back from various vacations.  I’ve never known anyone who has made these beauties and so the thought never occurred to me to attempt to make any myself.  The art form itself is over 2000 years old and has been passed down from generation to generation.  After a bit of information gathering from Jennifer, a bit of browsing around, and getting more inspiration from Jennifer’s sister Melissa’s eggs - I ordered a kit from Ukrainian Gift Shop.  It arrived about 3 days later – talk about fast, and I didn’t even expedite the shipping!  I sat down the next day, sketched out a design and gave it a shot. 

After dipping the egg into the second color dye I dropped it while applying the next layer of wax… oops.   It’s a pretty good crack, actually, but it managed to hold together while I finished it.  I’m not sure how long it will last in the long run though.  When I mentioned this to Jen, she let me know she had cracked her first too! I guess dropping your first egg is some kind of rite-of-passage or something.

So here it is.  My first attempt at making one of these eggs.

It’s not great, but I call it a good first attempt.  The design only barely resembles the one I sketched out and the colors aren’t what I’d pick if I did it again, but I learned a lot!  I think I’ll be sticking to the designs that came with my kit for the next couple of eggs to get more comfortable with it.