Featured UKRAINIAN PYSANKY

Hello,

I was not sure where to put this thread because it does not relate to any of the topics here. So, I decided to put it in this section.
I am talking now about Ukrainian pysanka, that is Easter eggs made of real empty eggs. I meant to load the information before Easter but did not have time.
Anyway, Happy Easter to everybody and some information.
During the Easter season I visited a master class on making pysanky (this Ukrainian word is not translated but used as it is). The art of creating pysanky in this area has been known since pagan times. During the Soviets it was forbidden, yet people in villages practiced it secretly. After Ukrainian independence it started reviving. Each region has its own design, colors, and techniques and experts can tell where the pysanka comes from.
For those who are interested in making pysanky I can tell you more but not here. Also, I have a few tutorial books. They are in Ukrainian but with detailed step by step pictures, so it is easy to follow the instructions. And it is just a pleasure to see thousands picturesque designs.
For now, I just want to show a few pictures. Enjoy......

 

They are simply amazing.

 

Hi,
I had an old Polish lady married to an Italian man when I was a kid tried to teach me how to decorate eggs. I remember she had a tiny pipe filled with bees wax that she would decorate and then dye the egg, then wipe the wax off. She would do this perhaps seven times (?). Her eggs were gorgeous, mine looked like hell exploded. . I must have been 8 or 9.
greg

 

That is funny Greg.

It reminds me that my daughter and I had a Girl Scout troup (I was the assistant) and at Easter time we would attempt pysanka. We did have fun, but never did they even remotely resemble Natasha's photos!

But they were kept, and today they are a pleasing memory of the project.

TY Natasha for the reminder.

 

My sympathies, Greg.

I about the same age, when I was introduced to these (Polish version) by the author, Marguerite De Angelie, via "Up the Hill. I think that was the book. Tried out the idea with some candle wax and a paring knife. About half-way through, I broke the egg, cut myself on the shell, and bled all over the whole business.

Not pretty...

 

Thank you Natasha, for sharing those beautiful eggs!!!! SO lovely!!!!!

 

Greg, with all your life experiences, I think you should write a book.


Love the eggs, they are stunning.

 

Hi Pearls,
Thanks I have thought about it but too many people are still alive, I hate law suits.
My Grandmother went from kerosene lamps and horses to space shuttles and magic phones. She had her first plane flight when she was 100. I flew her from NYC to West Palm Beach. When she landed I asked how her trip was. She said it was nice but "arms are really tired". I asked why? She told me that since she had gotten a little heavy she kept raising herself up using her arms since she figured it would make the plane lighter. I thought she was kidding but she was not.!!! She said she wanted to live to see the year 2000 so she could tell people she lived 300yrs. She made it and died when she was 113. Now that would have been a live to relive.
greg

 

You can always change the names of the people and write your book under a different name than yours. But you know best... still in all, you have some wonderful stories to tell.

 

Something that has been suggested to me many times............but unfortunately (as Greg will probably attest), not naming the person involved in a story/situation can make it bland and not at all amusing.............I could tell scads of stories of some famous people I have known - but everyone would say "Who cares how much Mr. Smyth drank and who he puked on?"...............

 

True...but...

You and Greg have incredibly different voices, but you share a real appreciation for that which has happened to, and around you. You both notice, and remember, and have an ability to relate these experiences in a way which resonates with anyone.

It's not that one cares who puked upon whom -- it's that one delights in the fact that the puker attests to being the soul of rectitude.

 

Hi again,
just want to pay your attention at some symbols on the eggs. I do not know if you are aware that those designs are not just nice ornaments but symbols. I do not know all of them but some of them are very popular.
For example, on picture 3 two eggs of coffee color have a symbol of three rays coming out from one point with one-way mutton horns - is the oldest one, the symbol of the Sun.
Can you find the symbols of yin & yang?

 

Yes, in the third photo near the center of the basket! They are all very pretty. Thank you for sharing.
Don

 

Correct, Don!!! It's fun to decipher symbols on pysanky......

 

I was almost in tears when I saw your comment that the creation of these beautiful objects was forbidden during the Soviet era. I imagine they were forbidden because the eggs represented the Ukrainian culture. I am so glad the tradition was continued and can be practiced freely today. With best wishes for peace and prosperity for your country.
Don

 

It's not just pysanky that were forbidden during the Soviets, everything that had Ukrainian identity was persecuted. Hope that time will never happen again. Thank you for the good wishes for my country
Natasha

 

I LOVE those eggs! I have only ONE, but I've had it since 1968! (I'd post a photo, but it's packed away with lots of other "precious" things in the attic...)

What I remember most about it is that you can hear the "mummified" (wrong word?) egg yolk rolling around inside! It wasn't always like that, but it happened over the course of the years.

Natasha, perhaps you know this: How do they keep the egg from rotting inside and exploding, over time? (I once tried to keep a little bird egg I'd found on the ground, and it did indeed explode eventually, causing a terrible mess - and stench!)

 

I made one of those once in a class. Mine wasn't nearly that pretty. We used blown eggs - nothing inside to rot.

 

Evelyb, you are right. The egg has to be blown inside out. Masters use a small rubber bag (pear) which pumps out the stuff inside. First they make small holes on both ends using large needle. Then they pump air into one hole and the stuff comes out from another. Then they clean the egg inside pumping water in and out.Then they put an egg vertically, so that remains of water get out of the egg, and let it dry. The last step is to cover two small holes with wax not to let paint get inside. That's how professional pysanky are made.

 

Or good ones of any sort, methinks; that's what was done to the ones we made in the class. I've blown out my fair share of eggs, but never had the right tool to keep it from seriously hurting.