These, by the way, are pysanky. You make them by drawing lines with wax, then dipping the egg into dye, then drawing some more, etc. A Ukrainian teacher made these with us in 6th grade and I recently got the urge to draw on eggs again. Problem is, you need a little funnel-stylus thing to hold the wax, and I can’t find them for sale anywhere. Surely someone has to sell them!
On an unrelated note, does anyone else wish they could purge their entire posting history? I’ve put a lot of work into wiping my 17-year-old self off the face of the internet, and yet here she is, and with enough identifying information in her posts for friends and employers to recognise her by. Sigh.
Try ordering pysanky a stylus, called a kitska (plural is kistky), from the Ukranian Gift Shop, http://www.ukrainiangiftshop.com/ . They ship promptly and their products are quality. You can get traditional kistky with wooden handles and copper funnels, more modern ones with handles that are made of a plastic-like material that does a pretty good job of withstanding heat - in different “sizes.” There are also electric kistky! Personally, I prefer the non-electric ones, and the plastic-y handled ones can “draw” a very fine line - finer than I’ve been able to get the traditional wood-and-copper ones to do.
my grandmother made her own by using a piece of metal (tin can lid) that she shaped into a funnel and wrapped on a stick with a piece of string. you could give that a try.
still using it to this day. i would think she made it here in the states as her family back in russia would not even know what a tin can is. so i’m figuring she made it in the late teens early 20s.
Heh, thanks for the recommendations. I’ll keep looking locally but if I can’t find any I’ll order some from McCallister’s (I’m a little doubtful whether the Ukrainian Gift Shop ships to Australia… sure, it lists “Australia” on its order form, but the shipping cost is the same as for the continental US).
Might try to make my own too, but I’m hopeless at making anything.
Well, thanks. I’ve just spent the last hour looking at pysanka eggs. That is definitely going on my “wish list”.
I don’t completely understand the technique, though. There seem to be pre-made patterns which could help but are the designs actually drawn free-hand (with the help of some kind of stand or lathe, I assume)?
rubberbands. i didn’t use a stand but not that you are making me think an egg cup would be helpful.
you get an egg (or a dozen). either hollow out a raw egg by blowing out the innards, or hard boil it.
if you decide on hollow out make a hole on either end. i use a pin and wiggle it around a bit to enlarge the holes. a hat pin works really well cause you can break the yolk. deep breathe, force air into one of the holes and hold the other hole over a bowl. keep going until the entire innards have left the shell. rinse egg and let dry. optional part; make omlette.
once ready to decorate egg. gather and ready supplies. get a beeswax candle and light it. put a rubberband around the egg, scoop out a bit of candle with your kitska, hold over flame until melted, draw a line of wax next to the rubberband, let cool. move rubberband into the next line spot. repeat until all the lines are done. you just hold the egg in one hand, while putting on the wax with the other.
dunk egg into yellow dye, let dry. scoop out wax and cover all the areas you want to keep yellow with wax, let cool. dunk into orange, let dry. cover areas you want orange, let cool, dunk into red, let dry . lather, rinse repeat. the let dry part is where the egg cup may help. i just lay the egg on a white paper towl.
when you are done you hold the egg toward the flame until the wax melts, then wipe with a white paper towel. melt, wipe, melt wipe, small areas until all the wax is gone. you should have a lovely multicoloured shiney waxed egg at the end.
i usually have a mess at the end. i’m not artistic at all. some people will lightly pencil the outlines. i find the rubberband method works the best for lines. you do have to let the wax cool a bit longer than you think otherwize they will come off when you move the rubberband to the next position.
Don’t blow out the egg’s yolk before you attempt to dye the egg. The egg will float in the dye and needs to be submerged to take the dyeing well. Traditionally the eggs are not blown out even after dyeing. Usually the yolk and white will evaporate over time, although I have some eggs that after 20 years have a bit of what I presume to be hardened yolk inside that rattles around when I shake the egg. The yolk and white can be blown out of the egg after dyeing, but you should not consume them as the dyes used for pysanky can be somewhat toxic. If you use vegetable dyes, though, there shouldn’t be any problems consuming the blown-out insides.
And, it wouldn’t surprise me that the shipping costs to Australia from the Ukranian Gift Shop would be the same as within the continental US. The supplies (kistky, dyes, beeswax) are quite lightweight.
If you try to make your own kitska, don’t use a “tin” can to make the funnel. It’s too thick. And if you try to attach your home-made funnel to the handle with string the string’ll burn off when you stick the funnel into the candle flame. Traditionally the funnels are attached with wire.
Some folks are able to draw their waxed designs without using rubberbands, a lathe, or light pencil lines. Pencil lines are not always able to be erased. And you have to remember to compensate for a rubberband’s thickness when placing it around the egg to get the desired design to be symmetric and even. I’ve found that the larger the chicken egg is and the smoother it is, the easier it is to just eyeball it. Duck eggs are the best - they’re so much smoother than chicken eggs and I think a more consistently “perfect”& ideal egg shape. Some chicken eggs are quite rounded at what I feel should be a pointier top.
That doesn’t sound right, letters are also lightweight but it costs more to send one across the world than down the street. I’ve never ordered something from the US and paid the same shipping as a US resident. McCallister’s, for example, wants $26 to ship me some dye and a few kistky, as do the fine sellers on eBay (bunch of crooks). Sigh.
