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Pysanky, more generally known as Ukranian Easter eggs, are decorated using a wax resist technique that's at least several centuries old. Though it looks dauntingly complex, the pysanky technique is actually very simple; all that's needed is a steady hand and the proper tools.

The basic supplies you'll need to get started in pysanky are a kistka or stylus, beeswax, a few dyes, and a candle or other small flame source (an alcohol lamp, or even a burner on a gas stove, could be made to work). All of these except the candle are specialty items, but there are plenty of places online where you can buy complete

kits, and some craft stores stock them in the spring as well.

Once you have your dyes, you'll need something to mix them up in. Any non-metal containers will do, though it's best to get something relatively tall and narrow (though of course it has to be wide enough to fit the eggs into) so that it's easy to completely immerse the eggs. Two-pint Mason jars are a good choice, or you can use drinking glasses-though if you do, you probably shouldn't drink out of them afterwards, as pysanky dyes are quite poisonous.

After your dyes are mixed up and cooling, you can prepare your eggshells. As noted above, the dye is poisonous; you can't eat the egg after it's been dyed. If you want to save the egg, you'll need to blow it beforehand. This can be something of a pain, because then the hole in the shell needs to be stopped up thoroughly, and the shell will tend to float in the dyebath, but there are ways around both problems. Filling the shell with sand helps with the buoyancy problem, and the hole can be stopped with some of your wax. Regardless, the eggs don't need to be boiled. The shells should be washed, though, which will help make them take the dye better.

Beeswax, melted in the kistka, is what you'll do all your drawing with. You can get either natural-colored wax or wax that's been tinted black with soot; the latter shows up better on the eggshells, but either will work perfectly well. You may wish to spend a few minutes breaking some wax up into pieces small enough to fit into the reservior of the kistka, which has a little metal funnel on the end of the handle. To draw, you'll melt wax in the reservoir and then use the small end to make lines on the eggshell. (It will probably take an egg or two to get the hang of the correct wax temperature, but you'll catch on quickly.) Kistkas come in several sizes, and there are even electric, plug-in ones that don't need an external source of heat.

The heart of the pysanky technique is the wax resist, and specifically the order of dyes. Every pattern you see will tell you what order to apply dyes in; as a rule of thumb, they go from lightest, almost always yellow, to darkest, often red or black. At each step, you'll cover up the areas that you want to have remain whatever color they currently are.

Therefore, when you start with a white shell, you cover with wax all the areas you want to stay white. The basic lines of a pysanky pattern, dividing the shell into sections, are almost always white for this reason. Once all the white areas are covered, the shell goes into the yellow dye. When it comes out, pat it dry on a paper towel or rag and cover all the areas you want to stay yellow, and so forth through orange, red, and whatever other colors you have. The exceptions to this are greens and blues, which tend to not wash off well and make subsequent colors muddy; they should be applied to the areas you want them on with cotton swabs or the like, and then covered with wax.

Once you're done with all the dye baths, you'll be left with a rather uninspiring egg that's mostly covered in wax-it'll look especially bad if you used blackened wax. The very best part of making pysanky is taking that wax off to reveal your design underneath. To do this, you'll need your candle or other heat source again. Hold the egg up to the flame, on the side so as not to get soot on the shell. When the wax melts on a small part of the shell, wipe it off with a cloth or paper towel. Work out from the first clear spot until all the wax is gone. For long-term durability, spray your shell with a non-water-based varnish.

If you want to keep the eggs long-term, you can blow them out, but it's not really necessary; most of the time the contents will dry out over the course of a year or so. It does occasionally happen that an egg explodes in storage, and quite smelly it is, too, so you might want to wrap unblown eggs in cloth-don't use plastic, as the eggs won't be able to dry out and will become more prone to exploding.

Descriptions of traditional color and pattern symbolism are available anywhere that supplies pysanky tools, or you can just use colors and designs that are meaningful to you. Either way, enjoy this traditional craft!

Learn more about this author, Carrie Schutrick.
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