2025, Art, holidays, Seasons

Pysanky

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A couple of comments yesterday made me think that I have probably never explained the process of making a Ukrainian egg or “pysanky”.  I’ll try to keep it simple!

Larger eggs are easier, although I did a fun series of three teeny eggs a few years ago.  A rinse in white vinegar gets any residual grease off the egg.  You work with a whole egg, uncooked and not emptied.

Ukrainian egg dying is a little similar to batik.  You apply melted wax to the egg and then dip it in dye.  You repeat this, from your lightest color to you darkest until you’re done and then melt all the wax off.  A very traditional pysanky will be white, yellow, orange, green, red and black but there are plenty of other designs using other shades (blue, purple, pumpkin, brown, etc.)  After you are all done with waxing and dyeing, you melt all the wax off the egg (carefully) to reveal your design in all its glory.

There are a few tools for making pysanky.  The most critical is called a kistka and it is the tool that you use to melt the beeswax and to apply the wax to the egg.  I have two kinds of kistkas.  The traditional kistka which is held over a candle to melt the wax and an electric kistka, which keeps the wax cone hot without having to use a candle.  Both traditional and electric have a variety of widths, depending on how thick or fine you want your wax lines.  I tend to use both during a project.  The beeswax has a black additive these days; without it, the wax is hard to see on the egg if you’re using electric – no carbon from a candle flame!

After you’ve melted off the wax, that’s when you add the varnish.  This is an important step because it not only makes the egg shiny and pretty but it adds a bit of strength to the shell.  If you are making pysanky that are being displayed but are not ornaments, then you are done.  Eventually the insides of a Ukrainian egg will dry up and you can hear the dried yolk rattle if you shake them.  (If you break one before it’s all dried up – get a clothespin for you nose!)  If you are making ornaments, you’ll need to blow them out and add a finding to the top so you can thread it with twine, floss or some sort of string. 

The most frequent question I get is how long an egg takes and it depends entirely on the complexity of your design.  This year’s egg, if I did one at a time, from beginning to end would take about 75 minutes, but since I’m doing several at one time, that cuts down the time to about 55 minutes each. 

Of course, there is plenty more I could say, but I’ll save that for when you ask me!

Tell me about any tools you need for your hobby!

39 thoughts on “Pysanky”

  1. We have an enclave of Ukrainian immigrants who came here in the early 1900’s. We have a Ukrainian Cultural Institute where people sell their pysanky. They also host a Ukrainian dance festival each year and serve a Ukrainian lunch every Friday.

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  2. Cooking is our hobby, and we have lots of tools we are in the process of packing up. We decided to get rid of the mandoline since the food processor has a blade that slices just a thinly and is less dangerous than the mandoline.

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  3. There also is a lot of specialized equipment for lefse making-potato ricer, grooved rolling pin with cloth covers, pastry board with cloth cover, flipping stick and electric griddle.

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  4. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    VS, as you describe this process, all I can think is that making pysanky is not for me. It is wonderful that you enjoy it. But like traditional quilting, it is just too proscribed for my brain, but beautiful to look at.

    This also makes me aware of how many hobbies I have. So I will stick with polymer clay work tools:

    Food processor for conditioning clay
    Pasta machine for rolling flat sheets
    Utility knives
    Knitting needles for shaping, as well as knitting needlie-like tools for various levels of shaping
    Shaped cutters
    Stamps
    Texture sheets
    Convection toaster oven for curing clay
    Polisher
    A scraper to clean the floor when I am done with a project because I make a mess.

    This is when I wish I could post pictures.

    OT: Yesterday late afternoon we visited a corgi puppy 5 1/2 weeks old who we will claim as our own. His name is McGee and he will come home with us on Sunday October 5. Too cute for words, he is!

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  5. “Hobbies“ is a hard word to define to me. It’s something to do in your spare time? Or for enjoyment? I never feel like I have spare time, and we always joke about doing something in our “spare time“ and if I enjoy farming and I enjoy Theatre, which both take all my time and have lots and lots of specialized tools, and I’ve always said we have a hobby farm because it’s too small to be considered a real farm, then I guess I have tractors and welders and special tools and lighting equipment and DMX converters, but the one thing that I don’t have yet, that I probably should get, is a good torque wrench. I had a really cheap one once. Good ones are a few hundred dollars and I don’t use it enough to justify it, but I keep my eye on the auctions.

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      1. I know, right??

        My brother-in-law, the structural engineer told me 100 lbs on a 6′ handle gives you 600 foot pounds. You can work backwards from there. Roughly.
        Since I rarely have the actual specs for the recommended footpounds, typically I just make it ‘really tight’. Also known as ‘Good and Tight’. Which is just before breaking it off. That’s a skill that comes with practice. It’s easy to break a 5/16th’s bolt. Harder to break a 1/2″ bolt, but it can be done with a long enough handle. So, make it TIGHT, but don’t break it.

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  6. I love fiber arts. I’m better at some than others, but I have tried my hand at crocheting, weaving, beading, bead embroidery, embroidery, wool felting, and, most recently, knitting. I admire sewing and quilting, but it’s not for me.

    Having attempted all of these crafts, I’ve acquired lots of stuff to enjoy them. I have two collections of crochet hooks, a large variety of knitting needles, a collection of beads of various sizes and shapes, all of the needles and pins, scissors, tweezers, pliers, stitch markers, measuring tapes, threads, yarns of all kinds, embroidery flosses, pieces of wool and wool roving and wool felt, boards for blocking pieces I’ve made, and much other useful miscellaneous. All this stuff had to be packed for my move, and I am now just unpacking and finding places for it.

    I also love folk music, so I have a large collection of sheet music and books. I also have a guitar, a few mandolins, a banjolin, a dulcimer, and three ukuleles. Along with these are strings, tuners, picks, stands, cords, straps, and cases. And three or four recorders too.

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    1. I adore looking at quilts and quilted items. I spend a lot of time at the state fair looking at all the different quilts and I love quilts on a stick. But I’m absolutely sure that I would be terrible at it. And I can’t imagine where I would put all the fabric that I would feel I needed if I took up a hobby like that.

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  7. Carving: I get rid of all but three knives and four stones. Stones are more important than knives.
    Pastels: got rid of tripod, pastels and detailing tools. In other words everything but the papers.
    Drawing: kept all graphite, color, watercolor, and charcoal pencils, all sharpeners, all papers. In other words, everything.
    Watercolors, which I had only started doing when Sandra went into care: all brushes, watercolors, blank postcards and greeting cards, papers, sponges, sketchbooks.
    I have 11 instruction books left. My daughter told me not to get rid of any art stuff. It adds up to four large boxes.
    Cooking: gave our big Kitchenaid mixer to our granddaughter who uses it 3-6 times a week. Have blender and processor which I never use.

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  8. What a talented group! What patience you have for the pysanky. My main hobbies are
    — Music particularly piano. I’m planning to get a new iPad and switch to having my music on that instead of sheet music.
    –Cooking. Just gave my kitchenAid mixer to my niece as I am really not baking in an effort to continue successful weight loss. I have switched to a plant based diet so am learning to make delicious dishes with no salt, minimal fat and sugar. As a result, an associated hobby is playing with spices and herbs to improve flavor. I do have a food processor, immersion blender, Vitamix (I LOVE it), and a mandoline (which Renee, I am not really using).
    –Photography but I sold my cameras and am using my iPhone. I just got a polarizing filter for my iPhone but I don’t have a stick.

    Looking forward to photos of McGee- Corgis are so cute- especially their little fox shaped heads!

    I tried to like some comments but Word Press would not let me.

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      1. I usually use my food processor for pesto. But you could use the Vitamix very carefully if you want texture preserved. I love the Vitamix for smoothies and soups.

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    2. I use Songbook Pro (app) for sheet music a lot now. Books full of sheet music are heavy to carry around. I’ve been able to download all kinds of music sheets which are stored on my iPad in the app. The only cost I’ve ever paid for it was $6.99 when I bought it, but I can only have it on one device. I have it on my iPad and it works well. You search for the song you want online (default choice is Ultimate Guitar), choose a version of the song, and save it to the app. From there you can change the key, change the tempo, and edit it to your heart’s content! I love it!

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      1. I have a hobby, which has become something of an obsession: writing all of the lectionary passages for the church year into rhymed, metered verse and setting them to tunes. Until a year ago, these festered in a WordPress Blog and as YouTube videos. Recently, though, I got them up to My.Hymnary,org (a function of Calvin University in Michigan) so they look better and I can get royalties! So far, though, not a penny. Maybe it’s the obscurity, or maybe it’s that, when it comes to singing in church, we already know what we want, and it isn’t what I’m producing.

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  9. Julie is giving me ideas – the sheet music and books mostly sit in a drawer… I would save some of the books, because the duets, i.e., have penciled annotations from when I played them with my mom.

    I do have a few colored pencils in case I ever get around to drawing, but it’s getting more unlikely.

    Kitchen: I used to have the lefse equipment, but have given that to someone who will use it. Loaned the blender out, but have a Vitamix when needed. Crock-Pot is one of the most used items…
    I do have favorite spatula turners – metal, old fashioned and the shape mimics my cast iron pans. Hard to find now…

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      1. I’m not sure you can qualify the card making as a hobby. Kind of like Ben’s “hobby”, I sometimes think it has a life of its own.

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  13. I suppose cooking is my biggest hobby. It would take a long time to list every special tool and gadget, but one of my favorite recent additions is a Japanese rice cooker. We have rice 2-3 times a week, and now it cooks perfectly every time. The newest special tool is a pan for making Detroit style pizza, Husband’s latest cooking obsession. It’s been too hot to bake pizza, though.

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    1. I have a very old Black & Decker steamer that we use for rice. I got it back when I couldn’t afford a real rice steamer, but it works fine so I’ve never been tempted to replace it.

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  16. Song of the Spinning Wheel

    Swiftly turn the murmuring wheel!
    Night has brought the welcome hour,
    When the weary fingers feel
    Help, as if from faery power;
    Dewy night o’ershades the ground;
    Turn the swift wheel round and round!

    Now, beneath the starry sky,
    Couch the widely-scattered sheep;–
    Ply the pleasant labour, ply!
    For the spindle, while they sleep,
    Runs with speed more smooth and fine,
    Gathering up a trustier line.

    Short-lived likings may be bred
    By a glance from fickle eyes;
    But true love is like the thread
    Which the kindly wool supplies,
    When the flocks are all at rest
    Sleeping on the mountain’s breast.

    – William Wordsworth

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