Outside Inspiration: Pysanky – Ukrainian Egg Dyeing
There was a novel I read not long ago where a character described the process of drawing on eggs with wax and then dying them. I had this pretty cool image in my mind of what they might look like; but it wasn’t until today, when putting in the keywords “Eastern European art” into Google’s image search, that I actually got to see what these are – and just how far off my imagination had been!
The eggs below are labeled as “Pysanky: Ukrainian Easter Eggs” on a photo-gallery website called www.thingography.com. If you go to the Pysanky gallery on this site, you can see just how intricate this egg dyeing gets. The level of detail on these is quite mind-blowing; everything is created with wax and dye.
For those of you looking for inspiration for canes, I think you will find that perusing these eggs on the previously mentioned page or putting Pysanky into a Google images search or on Pinterest will bring you quite the bonanza of color and pattern ideas. There is also a Flickr group that posts more than just eggs. What a wonderful art form!
(There is no attribution for the artist or artists and an image search revealed no further information. If anyone happens to know a more specific way to credit the artist or artists, do let me know!)
Do you mean dyeing?
Yes! Very tired writer I am … and I think I’m over-working my proofer too!
http://www.ukrainiangiftshop.com
The above-noted website contains a lot of wonderful information from a family who has made a living and a life out of this art!
About a year ago, I traveled to a wonderful little spot in Phillips, Wisconsin, about an hour north of where I live. There is a “park” up there with the artwork of Fred Smith, a man who designed in concrete and used glass, china, marbles, etc., to accentuate his art. Many are life-size and bigger than life-size people and animals . There is an organization, The Friends of Fred Smith, and they offer a wonderful variety of art classes (funded by the FOFS, Friends of Fred Smith), and I took my Mom and daughter to a class on pysanky. (Somewhere here in my Studio, I have the notes.) Anyway, I was excited to do so, because I remembered as a young girl having a chance to learn this art back in the 70’s. Now that I am a ‘full time’ artist, and love to teach as well as create, it was my desire to offer classes of this nature as well, and that is when I learned about the folks at the website above.
Here are a couple of links about the Concrete Park if you are interested:
http://www.friendsoffredsmith.org/
http://www.pricecountywi.net/attractions/museums-and-monuments/wisconsin-concrete-county-park/
As a side-note, last month I again attended a class that offered polymer clay use to encourage us to think and create like Fred Smith. It was a fun class, and I had hoped I would learn more from others (I learned that I had more experience than I gave myself credit for, and the leaders of this class were photographers who had a grant and mission to travel throughout the state to photograph things.) They “baked” our creations in camping ovens (I don’t recommend that, unstable results!), but it was fun and I met some nice folks. I’m going again in October to take a class on mosaic art.
I hope this pysanky info is helpful to you, and I’ll see if I can find those printouts. It shared details about the meanings behind the traditional designs used. If I can be of any further assistance, feel free to call on me.
With abundant blessings,
Christine
Christine O’Toole
Studio O In the Heart of Stetsonville
Making Heirloom Quality Memories to Last a Lifetime
715-678-2247 by appointment
christine.studio.o@gmail.com
Art in many forms: Repairs – Restore – Redesign – Rediscover!
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Thank you for your recent reference to Thingography.com Pysanky gallery. My uncle & late aunt are the artists of the Pysanky in the photo gallery.
Thanks for making them feel special – they have been doing Pysanky for decades.
Thank You