St. George Orthodox Church in Prescott, AZ is once again offering its annual Pysanky making class!

Pysanky are intricately decorated Easter Eggs, traditionally made in Ukraine. We have the great opportunity to offer a class in  Traditional Ukrainian Easter Egg making.

This Class is Open to the Public!

Bob Thommen will be here offering a hand-on, how to class for making Pysanky  (highly decorated Easter Eggs) using the traditional wax resist (batik) method.

This requires registration and a $15 fee.

(The Pysanky kit is included. If you have a kit, you must still pay the fee.)

The class will be 3-4 hours long. Fresh eggs and beeswax candles will be provided by the Church.

Deadline for Registration is Wed. March 14th. Class will be on Sat. March 31st, 2012.

This is a hard deadline for registration. March 15th is too late to register.

Sign up today!

More About Pysanky – What is Pysanky?

Pysanky are Ukrainian Easter eggs, traditionally 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. The art form of producing elaborately-decorated eggs is also common through Central and Eastern Europe.

Pysanky are traditionally made during the last week of Lent, Holy Week on the Orthodox calendar.

History

The art of the decorated egg or the “pysanka” dates back to pre-Christian times. No actual examples exist, as eggshells are fragile. However, folk tales reveal that people who lived in the region now known as Ukraine worshipped the sun. It warmed the earth and therefore was a source of all life. Eggs decorated with symbols of nature were chosen for sun worship ceremonies and became integral to spring rituals as benevolent talismans.

With the acceptance of Christianity in 988 AD, the decorated pysanka continued to play an important role in Ukrainian rituals. Many symbols of the old sun worship survived and were adapted to represent Easter and Christ’s Resurrection.

Eggs decorated with nature symbols became an integral part of spring rituals, serving as benevolent talismans.

In modern times, the art of the pysanka was carried abroad by Ukrainian emigrants to North and South America, where the custom took hold.

However, during the communist regime, it was banished as a religious practice, where it was nearly forgotten. Many museum collections were destroyed both by war and by Soviet cadres. Since Ukrainian Independence in 1991, there has been renewed interest in the art form.

Method

The most popular method for creating pysanky is by wax resist or batik. A specialized instrument called the “kistka” is used to write the design with hot wax.

The egg is then placed into a colored dye bath, which covers all areas of the white egg shell that have not been protected with wax. The progression of colors proceeds from the lightest to the darkest hues, so that each subsequent color covers the preceding.

After each dye bath the areas that are to remain that color are covered in wax, and then dipped into the next darker dye, with the process repeated. The final color is always the darkest, and is one that provides a background that effectively contrasts with all of the other previously utilized colors.

When the final color has been applied, the egg is carefully heated by a candle to melt the various layers of wax so that it may be easily removed. The colorful patterns and designs of the pysanky are then revealed.

The egg is then coated with layers of varnish to give it a glossy-like finish! +