Category: pysanky

2 more pysanky

I had an urge to do an earth toned pysanka, so the flower pysanka on the left is dyed with Ukrainian Eggcessories’ all-Canadian Maple Syrup and Okanagan wine. Getting the yellow vivid can be a challenge, so for the pysanka with the pinwheel, I just dabbed on the green for the sunflower leaves with a cotton swab instead of immersing the egg. That kept my Canola Yellow bright. The background on that pysanka is actually from a final dip in purple dye to brighten up my blue.

2 mallard ducks join the flock

These cute little quail eggs don’t always take dye the way that I’d like them to, so creating the two pysanky with mallard ducks was more of a challenge than I anticipated. I was looking forward to the contrast of the mallard’s bright orange beak/feet and the rich green head and dark body. But then, what to have as a background colour? The deep wine colour of the body made any bright blue I tried go mottled, so I did what I always do at a time like this — reach for the purple! It took, and looks almost blue. So mallard ducks in water. Ha!

Pysanky and friends

Wanted to get a picture of these before I gave some away. Met with four of my longtime writer friends yesterday over lunch and wanted a special pysanka for each. Gary Barwin, musician and author of many books of poetry, kids books and novels, including the hilarious Yiddish for Pirates got the giant bird on green background. That’s a parrot, inspired by what’s on the cover of Yiddish for Pirates. Judy Ann Sadler writes picture books, including her most recent, The Digger Dance, but she is also the queen of craft books — she’s had them published regularly since the 1990s! I had to give her something creative, so she got a red bird pysanka. Gillian Chan, author of historical fiction and fantasy, just finished an exciting new novel, and green is her favourite colour. She also loves fish motifs so she got the green pysanka with a circle of fish. Barbara Haworth Attard, who writes historical fiction, plus one of my all-time favourite contemporary novels, Theories of Relativity, one of the first YA novels about homelessness, loves to quilt when she isn’t writing, so she got the pysanka with the bees and the yellow pinwheel pattern which is much like a quilting motif. (I gave each a quail pysanka as well.)

Nine more pysanky and now it’s all put away til next year!

I had seven quail eggs and two XS eggs cleaned and ready to go last week but had to put them all away because work intruded. Our family stuff was on Friday and Saturday, so on Easter Sunday and Monday, I dragged out the pysanky dyes and kistkas again, listened to music and wrote nine more pysanky. I like doing mini versions of designs I’ve already become familiar with. It’s fun doing two-toned pysanky as well, especially on the littlest eggs.

First pysanka of 2025

Here are the steps for making this pysanka:

1.

after first dye dip: everything that will be white is covered with dark wax.

2.

I waxed over everything that I wanted to stay pink, washed back the pink with a dye neutralizer, then dipped in blue.

3.

Waxed over everything I wanted to be blue, then dipped into black dye. I drilled a hole into the bottom of the egg and blew the guts out, then stuck the waxy dyed hollow egg into the microwave for 10 seconds, then buffed off the melted wax.