Making Pysanky
by Jenners • 04/23/2012 • Creative Pursuits, My Childhood • 71 Comments
If you’re reading this post expecting something about cookies or cakes, I’m sorry to disappoint you. Pysanky are Ukrainian Easter eggs, which are intricately patterned, brightly colored eggs that are created by writing with beeswax on the egg and dyeing the egg in darker and darker shades of dye, and then melting off the wax to reveal lovely vibrant eggs, like the ones shown below.
From Wikipedia
When I was a child, my mom made pysanky and taught us kids how to make them too. I haven’t made pysanky in 30+ years, but I always wanted to attempt to make them again and introduce BB to this tradition. After my mom died, I found her pysanky materials (wax, dyes and kitska) and took them home with me. However, it wasn’t until this past weekend that I was finally ready to attempt it on my own. I thought it might interest you to see the process and the (rather amateurish) results. So here goes!
My jars of dyes. The dyes are inedible and are mixed with boiling water and vinegar.
A kistka (the writing tool) and the beeswax. You scoop a bit of beeswax into the kistka, heat it over the candle and then draw on the egg with the beeswax, which should flow smoothly out of the drawing end of the kistka.
Drawing on the egg with the kistka. You start out drawing on a white, raw egg. Anything under the wax will remain white. Then you dye the egg yellow and draw with the wax again. Anything under the wax will remain yellow. You proceed on in this way, dyeing the egg darker and darker shades as you go along.
Once the egg is completed, you melt the wax and wipe it away to reveal the finished egg.
My finished pysanky. These are very amateurish because I had a hard time drawing with the kistka and got lots of wax blobs all over the eggs. Plus I had trouble fitting the intricate designs on the eggs. Still, I was impressed by the vibrant colors!
It was very rewarding to make pysanky again, and I had a rush of wonderful childhood memories doing this with my mom. The smells of the wax and the dyes were so familiar. Now that I’ve managed to make a few successfully, I plan on teaching BB how to do this so this family tradition will live on with his generation.
If you’re interested in learning more about psyanky, you can find out more at Wikipedia. If you’re inspired to create your own, I’d recommend the Ukrainian Gift Shop, which is where my mom and I got our supplies. They sell a basic starter kit, which comes with instructions, for a very reasonable price. Have any of you created pysanky? If so, how do I get the my kistka to write smoother!!?? : )
What a wonderful tradition to carry on with your son. I don’t think your efforts are amateurish at all! I’m quite impressed by them!
Well, if you saw the eggs that people who’ve done this for years can produce you’d see how bad mine really are. The cool thing is that the eggs still look pretty cool even if you’re not that good at drawing with the wax. All the colors make them look more intricate than they actually are.
Oh, my this brings back so many memories. I use to make pysanky with my baba and later with my mom. I have a few that I’ve kept that my uncle made me that are in the true Ukrainian colors of red and white. You know which ones I mean? I think this is a great tradition to have with your son.
You should try and do these again, especially if it brought back memories. It was wonderful to revisit this experience again. I know what ones you mean. I so admire the true artists that make those intricate designs and don’t blob wax all over the place. I’m going to keep doing this every year and keep the tradition alive in our family.
I too am actually pretty impressed with your fauncy Easter eggs. The best I ever did was the trick where you dye one half one color, and the other half a different color.
I suspect you’d enjoy doing this kind of thing. It is oddly absorbing and satisfying. A great little Easter tradition that I will keep alive from now on.
That is awesome!
It is such a cool thing to do and they look so fabulous even when you make tons of mistakes.
How beautiful and what a cool thing to introduce to your son. I think the patterns are so interesting. Why isn’t the egg hard boiled first? I’m sure the obvious answer is staring me the face.
I’m not exactly sure why. They just said to do them on raw eggs. Eventually, the insides will dry up or something. You could blow out the insides too but I didn’t get to that yet.
Jenners, that is beautiful!!! Thanks for sharing how you create them.
Glad you enjoyed it. I’m hoping that next year, my eggs look even better.
These are BEAUTIFUL. And thanks so much for the details. I have always like these eggs and understood the process to some extent but had never seen it step-by-step. Can’t believe you hadn’t made them in 30 years! That means you were an infant when you learned this from your mother. A prodigy!
Oh you flatter me … I’m much older than you suspect!!
When I was getting ready to make them again, I was trying to puzzle out just how it worked and couldn’t quite do it. But it is very simple when you break it down.
First of all – you and I have the same plates. The exact same pattern. I got my Corelle plates in probably the early 90′s as a gift from my mom. Most of them are still in tact…even if I don’t exactly heart the patter anymore. Second of all – I think your eggs turned out great. If it makes you feel any better….we didn’t dye eggs at all this year….or have an egg hunt or anything. So, we are all duly impressed with your artistic expression. I know just what you mean when you say that the smells brought back the memories of doing this with your mother. Can’t wait to see what BB’s look like when it is his turn!
That is so funny as my plates were a gift too!! And I’m not exactly in love with them, which is why I don’t hesitate to use them to hold a candle!! Too funny. I’m always hoping that they break but they really don’t!!! I’m very excited to see BB’s eggs too!
They are strong suckers, aren’t they? Back when she got them for me, I was in the dusty rose/country blue phase of my life…..a phase that went on far too long. My kids and my hubby have done a pretty good job getting rid of the cereal bowls….only 2 left….but the plates just live on and on and on!
Those are beautiful! I am so impressed with your intrict designs. Seriously you did awesome! You could definitely get a girl scout badge for these
Love it! I wonder if they have Girl Scouts in the Ukraine … they would definitely have to have a badge for this!
Why draw on a raw egg? I’d be afraid of piercing it with the tool since I tend to be a little heavy handed.
It helps if the eggs has some weight so you can submerge it in the dye. Plus I’d be afraid I’d plunge the tool right through the egg if it was empty. Apparently they can stay raw and intact indefinitely.
Those are beautiful! Well done
I’ve never heard of these eggs before, but it looks like a fun thing to do.
It is a very fun and rewarding creative pursuit. The dyes are so vibrant and when you melt the wax off at the end, it is totally fun!
I’ve never heard of this before, but the eggs are beautiful!! You did a great job! I’m not crafty at all
Trust me … I’m not crafty at all but you can totally do this if I can!
I bow down to your craftyness Jenners! These are beautiful. What a wonderful way to remember your mom and pass this tradition down. I think these are gorgeous and I would never eat them.
I am assuming after all this work, you don’t eat them (Blonde question)
If nothing else, I wouldn’t eat them because they are raw eggs that are expired and sitting out at room temperature for a few weeks!!! HAHA! I don’t quite know what to do with the ones I’m not quite thrilled with … I would feel bad just throwing them out. I guess I better not make too many!
I have been making pysanky since I was a teenager and I think that is a fine first try. There are some tricks to keeping lines straight and keeping things even. I always found it very relaxing…
I never blow the eggs out and give them a coat of shellac when they are done and in time..like years…the egg inside just dries out. Now they say if it breaks, the smell is bad, but I never had one break yet!
I saw about varnishing them. When I get ones I’m pretty proud of, I think I will add a varnish to them. Glad to hear you haven’t had any breakages!!!! I imagine that would be something to smell. So these little tricks you mention…what might they be??
Beautiful, Jenners. I don’t think I’d have the patience to make these…
I hear you … some of the really elaborate designs would try me.
I love learning about different types of art. I’d never heard of these eggs, but they look so fun to make. Yours turned out great!
It is an interesting form of art, isn’t it? The really elaborate ones are just amazing to see. And they are really fun to make. Melting the wax off at the end and seeing the finished egg is really rewarding.
I know I’ll be quite crappy at it, but I am SO inspired to try. You did a beautiful job, and you ought not be so hard on yourself!
You should totally try! It is really rewarding creatively. And when you look at what I was trying to do and what it ended up looking like, you’d shake your head.
Those are amazing! I can’t wait to try this.
Oh I so hope you do!! It is really fun and affordable and you can really get some amazing looking eggs in these amazing vibrant colors. If you do it, let me know! I’d love to hear about your experience!
Oh my gosh, these are so beautiful, and though I have seen these eggs before, I have never been able to figure out how to make them. The ones you made were just beautiful, especially the red one in the middle! I can imagine that this is something that my daughter and I would love to do together. Such a neat thing to do! Off to check out your link and get my own supplies! Don’t be surprised if I keep hopping back over to this page to see how it’s done!
When I decided to do it again, I was trying to puzzle out how they got all the colors. There are some great tutorials on the web, and the link that I gave you sells kits the come with full instructions. It is actually pretty simple when you break it down. I hope you and your daughter do this — it is really fun and creative and they come out wonderfully even if you can’t quite pull off the intricate patterns like the ones at the top of the post. I so encourage you to try it — it is a really rewarding activity!!! Let me know if you do it!!
Those are lovely!
Thanks!!!
I am in awe, when I see something like this. It amazes me, that there are creative people –like you, with the patience to attempt something so intricate and involved. My motto is, “if I love it enough, I’ll buy a replica”
You rock!
When you break it down, the process is really quite simple. As we’ve seen before, I’m not the most creative person!!! It is weirdly involving … I ended up doing this for like 4 hours but it didn’t really feel like it!
That’s really awesome. I don’t think I’ve ever seen pysanky before but they’re beautiful. Do you do this on blown eggs?
You can blow out the eggs (I got a little tool to do that but didn’t use it yet because I only had “expired” eggs and I wasn’t sure I wanted to smell what I might blow out) but you can also do them on raw eggs and they are supposed to keep indefinitely. I sure hope they never break or we’ll be smelling it for days I imagine!
Everytime I come here your blog design changes. I made these eggs with my grandfather
I know …my blog design is nuts. I think reading the Steve Jobs biography influenced me. I decided to make it clean and simpler like Apple products. And I love that you made these eggs with your grandfather!!!
Wow! I too am bowled over! They’re gorgeous!
Thank you!! They didn’t quite turn out as I had hoped (two of them barely resemble the design I was trying) but the colors came out wonderfully. I’m going to keep trying.
You are shortselling your abilities…they’re lovely!
And if you keep up with the practice, you’ll soon learn how to do the most intricate patterns!
Do you blow out the egg first?
You can blow out the egg (I actually bought a small tool to do that) but I was afraid to try it because the eggs I was using were rotten and I didn’t know how bad it would smell if I blew out the insides of rotten eggs!! HAHA! They say you can just use raw eggs and they’ll keep indefinitely. I imagine we would know if they broke as the smell would be horrific!!! I’m going to try to use the egg blower thing and I’ll see how it goes. And once I do some more and get the hang of the wax flow, I think I’ll start to master the patterns. There are TONS of them to try.
These are gorgeous! I love the designs and vibrant colors. I’ll keep this in mind for an art project.
I think it would be a wonderful thing to try — it is something different but pretty easy and inexpensive to learn. Of course, the key to getting better is to do it. And if I can make these eggs after not doing it for 30 years, anyone can!
Those are beautiful. The colors are absolutely amazing. I hope you continue to practice and show off your work. Just gorgeous.
The colors are amazing — so so vivid!! I bet they would be neat to photograph too.
You did a great job, and practice makes the wax go on more smoothly. I practice every Easter, but mine are blobby too. It’s a family tradition here too. I actually just keep the dyes in my cold cellar and add a tsp. of vinegar in each year, nothing really happens to it. I’m sure you and BB will have a great time. Even my husband gets involved. don’t you just love the smell of the bees wax.
Thanks for the advice on keeping the dyes and “refreshing” them each year. I was hoping I could keep them and use them again next year. I think if we spend a week decorating each year, we’ll get better and better. And I do love the smell of the beeswax. It brought me right back to my childhood. I’d love to see some photos of your eggs if you have them!! I’m hoping to get Mr. Jenners to give them a go. I think he’d actually do really well. He is a bit better at spatial relations. I didn’t always “plan” my design well and ran out of space!
These are beautiful, Jen! I like the shades of orange and yellow on the left egg.
When I was a child, I had a neighbor from Russia and she showed me how to to this kind of eggs for Easter, they were always lovely even if far from perfect.
Practice, that’s what it takes to draw them better, lots and lots of it! In time you will figure out how much wax to apply and your hand will be steadier.
Last year I used food dye because I couldn’t find the proper one, they were still ok, but no pattern, just simple colored eggs – I posted a picture in the Updates section on my blog. Yours are more beautiful, though.
Ooohhh…I need to check out your eggs on your blog. I think getting the right dyes make a difference because the colors are so vivid. And I agree — with practice I will get better at this. The key is learning how long to heat the kistka and getting the wax to flow smoothly. I don’t quite have that figured out yet.
Wow! Okay so when you said your results were “amateurish” I expected something far more amateur – I’m quite impressed!
Thanks … but did you really look at mine and then the eggs at the top of the post? Mine are definitely amateurish! : )
I am so impressed–true talent!
Thanks but I really aspire to do much better. When you look at the eggs at the top of the post, you see how far from them mine are. It is amazing how vivid the colors are though.
Those are beautiful! It’s so neat that you are able to carry on that tradition and pass it on to your son!
It felt like such a great way to honor my mom and keep this alive. I wish we had been able to do these together with my son. She did give him a wooden one and told him about them one Easter but we never got to make them together. I feel like she is guiding me as I do this.
I am so impressed!! Your eggs are beautiful and far from amateurish. Amateurish would be when I was a kid and used the wax crayon provided in the PAAS dye kit to scribble my name on an egg before dyeing it. I hope BB enjoyed the activity as much as you did!
When you compare my eggs to the ones at the top of the post, they are definitely amateurish!! I’m going to work with BB doing this on the weekend. I’m curious how it will turn out with him!
I can’t believe you made those, they’re gorgeous!
Thanks!! It is such a neat thing and anyone can do them with the right tools. It is really a wonderful creative thing to do.
I have a beautiful pysanky that I bought at a craft show and use as a Christmas ornament. My hand’s not steady enough to draw on an egg.
My hand isn’t steady enough to draw on an egg either! They don’t look so bad from far away but up close my lines are all over the place and shaky. And when the wax blobs out, it makes me crazy. I’d love to see the experts making those intricately patterned eggs … it must something to see. If I get brave, I might empty out an egg and attach an ornament holder to one. We’ll see!