What’s Your Easter Tradition?

 

My friend, Sophia, invited me to a Pysanka Party, decorating Easter eggs in the Ukranian tradition.

 

This is Jean’s egg after she completed it. I love the design, Jean!

 

Here’s the top. Correct me if I’m wrong, Sophia: As I understand it, pysanka is Ukranian for “writing” or “to write.”

 

Above, some finished eggs. I love how colorful and shiny they are. In the Ukranian tradition, eggs are decorated (written upon) in the decorator’s most loving and thoughtful style, and then the eggs are given away as tokens of well wishes.

 

Pysanka kits are available at Boyt’s Drug store in downtown Metuchen. First you’ll need plain white eggs on which to sketch your basic design. The best quality eggs you can find seem to work best. Your finished eggs will, hopefully, last a lifetime, so it’s worth it to spend more to get the best eggs. Don’t get brown ones though! 

To photograph this event, I decided that using flash would be too disruptive for the artists, so I shot using all natural light. I opened up the aperture (shooting most often between 1.4 and 2.8), shot with a relatively slow shutter speed (usually between 80 and 125) and very high ISO (usually around 4000) which is one of the things I love about my Nikon D3!

Plus, I really love shots with a blurry background. It draws the viewer’s attention to the important thing in the photograph and makes a cluttered background melt away. (Decorating eggs makes a lot of clutter!) In this case, we can just barely make out the artist’s sketch on her egg. In reality, the sketch was so faint I had a hard time focusing on it, and I’ve brought up the contrast a LOT in Photoshop so that you could see the sketch.

 

The kits include several dye colors, but not the jars. I suppose Sophia collects jars all year for her annual Pysanka gathering.

 

You’ll use the wax in the kit, and the stylus or kystka, above, to cover over the areas of your design that you want to remain white.

 

Your design can be whatever you want it to be. But there are several Ukranian traditions that dictate what certain design elements would mean. A continuous circle drawn around your egg, for example, would be a symbol of eternity.

 

The party included many friends of Sophia’s children. If your child was at the party and you and your child would like to see the slide show, send Sophia an email and I’m sure she’ll send you the link.

 

Above, Jean is waxing over the areas of her design that she wants to keep red.

 

Once you’ve waxed over the areas you don’t want to get dye on, and you take the egg out of the next dye color, you have to melt the wax off.

 

Sophia’s son worked really hard on his egg. My son, on the other hand, thankfully, did not burn down Sophia’s house. (That’s Greg’s stylus and candle in the foreground. Greg didn’t want me to take his picture that day. That’s the life of a mamarazzi.)

 

Always work the dye process from lighter to darker. Yellow…

 

…then green.

 

Come prepared to have funky colored hands by the time you leave. Wear an old t-shirt or apron too. It gets messy!

 

Sophia’s daughter is quite skilled at decorating eggs. I loved watching her work.

 

The designs the girls made were so cool!

 

After your design has been dyed, and all the wax removed, you have to get the egg yolk out.

 

First you have to very carefully punch a tiny hole in the bottom of the egg. I think Sophia was using a drill bit.

 

You can use an egg blower to get the egg out. Sophia bought hers at a Ukranian shop in New York City. I suppose there are other ways to get the egg out. You could try using a bulb syringe. (If you have children, you probably brought a bulb syringe home with your newborn to clean the baby’s nose — ew). 

Above, the finished design of the sketch on the white egg shown near the top of this post.

 

You have to work that egg blower very gently or else you’ll break the egg.

 

Probably best to do this over a sink.

 

Watch out! Sometimes the egg shoots out all over the place.

 

And sometimes you break the egg, which is heartbreaking after you just spent several hours decorating it. The egg above, however, is salvageable. The hole blew out, but once it gets cleaned up and set on a stand, nobody will ever know.

 

Jean’s finished egg, and Jean’s finished hands. I was really impressed with Jean’s artistic creation. I love the fish theme!

 

There are many Pysanka Eggs in Sophia’s cabinet. The green one is one of her daughter’s latest creations. Beautiful! 

Thanks, Sophia, for inviting me and letting me take pictures. It was an educational experience for me — the best part of which was chatting with the people at the party and watching as their imaginations came to life!

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