Sunday, April 20, 2014

Ukrainian Easter Eggs --- Day 3/99

Walk: Round and round, up and down ladders and steps (Deep storage clearing)
Distance: Psychic, maybe a small home yoga practice



For several months before Easter a woman of Eastern European origin offers her Ukrainian Easter eggs at one of our local Farmers Markets.  (Or used to; I didn't see her this year).  I cannot even imagine how much time, patience and work she puts into creating her elaborate, intricate - and charming! - designs on the tiny, hollowed out, fragile surfaces.

The decorated eggs come from a tradition thousands of years old.  It began in the Ukraine but the art form has branched out into (mainly Eastern European) countries where different techniques have evolved.

One technique is Pysanky, a wax-resistant method better known to those of us from the 60's as batik. A tool called a kitska is used to apply the wax to the shell's surface before it is submerged in a dye.  This process is repeated many times for extraordinarily ornate designs. 

Krapanky (really) is similar to pysanky but decorated with dots.

Malyovanky eggs get painted with watercolor or oil paints often dyed before being painted to achieve a deeper background color.  

Whatever the technique, Ciwt finds them utterly charming and wishes the woman who went to all this effort and took all this care a Happy Easter.



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