Wax On...Wax Off

Sharing knowledge is a passion of mine.  Sometimes I worry that certain skills like food preservation are becoming a lost art.  So goes the old craft of Pysanky or Ukrainian Easter egg dying.  I have been creating these fragile egg canvases for about 28 years; and teaching the craft for about 25 years.

It all began with a dear friend named Mary.  She would host all day Pysanky open houses every Good Friday and the Saturday before Easter.  She would invite the most interesting mix of people to come together and talk, laugh, and nibble on delicacies I had never experienced until then.

After many years, she encouraged me to take on the event; and handing over her vast bin of supplies, I was dubbed the new heir apparent.  Each year I hosted an open house, teaching (and learning with) an ever eager group of egg artists.  Actually, almost everyone that came had never attempted this elaborate style of wax resist dying.  Most only ever were exposed to Paas color tablets mixed with vinegar to create watery pastel solid colors on their hard boiled eggs.

Pysanky is very different.  In the first place we work with raw eggs.  Yes, you read that correctly...RAW.  Also, the pigments used are intense colors of vermillion, pumpkin, scarlet, and black, to name a very few.  We use open candles and heated beeswax in a tiny funnel shaped tool on a handle called a kistka.

Eventually my open houses expanded to teaching classes at the Old Mill Museum, local libraries, and private parties hosted in someone's home.  This year, I will be teaching a class at the Two Twelve Art Center in Saline.  This class will be on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 9:00 a.m. to noon.

It's exciting to imagine what kind of creations emerge from this particular class.  I'm anticipating gorgeous creations from the artists I expect will be attending.  As I said earlier, most people that I've previously taught aren't artists and are amazed by what they create by the end of the class.  But I'm also a bit nervous.  After all, I usually teach from a brochure the most basic egg design.  I expect all my past teaching experiences will be out the window with this class.  As an artist myself, I hate being reined in by rules or step by step instructions.  And I promise, I love the idea of letting a class loose with creativity.  It's just the uncertainty and the unknown which have me excited and a bit frightened at the same time! 

Today Holly and I set up displays at Saline Library to promote the class and to delight the eyes with these fragile works of art.

писанка, Pysanka, or Ouă Vopsite

Pysanka

A pysanka  ( Ukrainian: писанка, plural: pysanky ) is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using a wax-resist ( batik) method. The word comes from the verb pysaty, "to write", as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax. Many other eastern European ethnic groups, including the Belarusians (пісанка), Bulgarians (писано яйце, pisano yaytse ), Croats ( pisanica), Czechs ( kraslice ), Lithuanians ( margutis ), Poles ( pisanka), Romanians ( ouă vopsite  or incondeiate ), Slovaks ( kraslica ), and Slovenes ( pisanica  or pirh ) decorate eggs in a similar manner for Easter.   (Definition from reference.com)


Since my camera was stolen several days ago; which was an example of Murphy's Law at it's best - er worst...

"the first time you forget to bring your very expensive camera in from the car, is the night your car gets broken into." 

Simultaneously, I have been reintroduced to Mr. Murphy as -

"The minute you have no camera, there are a million things you need to photograph!"

Of course, I am now craving to post on my blog by the minute, share THE COOLEST things I am doing with my face book friends, and seeing the most amazing sights EVER...because I don't have "Precious" anymore.  I'm certain those who know me well would never describe me as melodramatic or having an exaggeration streak....well, never mind.

I have decided to pull out the old point and shoot and see how creative I can be with a more modest camera.  So in honor of spring (Right. Brrrr) I've decided to post some of the eggs that I have created over the years.