‘Pysanky’ tradition turns eggs into Easter art
Eastern European tradition of ‘pysanky’ turns eggs into art — for children and skilled adults alike
In some Santa Fe homes, an intricate piece of Easter art could possibly become a smelly bomb in the days after the holiday. Long before dyed eggs were adopted as an Easter tradition, when folklore was more than story and nature was the most sacred deity, a Polish and Ukrainian custom honored the return of the sun and spring by turning eggs into blessings through colorful designs.
There are a handful of ancient Eastern European egg-decorating techniques that scholars believe were popular in the preChristian era.
One of the best known, a style in which designs are created with hot wax on an uncooked egg, is called pysanky. The oldest discovered eggshell decorated in this tradition dates back at least five centuries.
For a few hours on a recent Friday afternoon, several Santa Fe children continued this ancient practice at the Southside Branch Library.
Susan Reynolds, a librarian assistant and the leader of weekly art activities at the Southside Branch, warned the children of the dangers of being too rough with the raw eggs.
As she talked, the crowd of children and parents huddled around her. Their most pressing question: What did she mean when she said their divine little eggs might explode?
If a crack forms in the egg while it sits in their home, drying out, Reynolds said, it could rot and build up gases. The result? “Boom,” she said. “Rotten egg smell everywhere.”
She advised them to sniff their decorated egg once a month and make sure it isn’t leaking.
“You have to have careful hands to get all the details in.” Claire Johnston, 10
Holding a raw egg in hand, children ages 6 to 14 strained to envision how to turn their whiteshelled canvas into a colorful and symbolic blessing — using only traditional designs. Reynolds told them to think of a specific person as they decorated the egg, as it was not theirs to keep but a gift.
Gripping a small stick and holding a tiny metal funnel no bigger than a baby’s fingertip, the amateur artists got to work.
A child would hold the pysanky utensil, called a kiske, over a tea candle’s flame. Once it warmed, the child would drag the top of the funnel over a lump of beeswax, gathering the ink they would use to “write” traditional Ukrainian designs on their eggshell.
Pysanky quickly proved how it earned its name, which means “to write.”
The kiske, wielded like a quill, was difficult for many children to manipulate. Some scowled as blobs of wax fell onto their egg, landing outside the pattern they had planned.
“Be gentle on yourselves,” Reynolds told them. “Keep moving forward until that egg is finished.”
The beauty of pysanky is not only in the end product, but in the process of morphing mistakes into art. Reynolds’ end goal for the group: letting go of perfectionism and taking a moment to focus on creativity.
“Everything they make is beautiful,” she said. “Doing something like that with family or friends is important. It’s important to share art with people.”
By drawing with beeswax, the children were able to preserve the color of their egg at that stage. If a young artist wanted a white flower on an egg, for instance, he or she had to draw the shape in wax before dropping the egg into colored ink. The finished design was created in layers of color; for every bit of color an artist wanted to preserve in the final design, they had to cover it in beeswax writing with the kiske.
“You have to have careful hands to get all the details in,” said Claire Johnston, 10.
While she had dyed eggs for Easter before, Claire said, she had never done anything like pysanky. Designing an egg as a gift for her brother, she decided to draw a flower to represent happiness and joy, and a tree for strength.
“I like this way because the wax is fun,” Claire said, “and it’s more loving because you have to put more time in it.”
As the children dipped and dragged their kiskes into the wax, the room quieted in concentration.
“It’s kind of a different thing than just painting,” said Reece Watts, 9.
“I knew it was going to be pretty hard,” added his brother, James, also 9.
With increasing focus on the sciences in schools, Reynolds said, providing a space for children not only to create art, but do so with different cultural techniques and traditions, is important.
“It’s helpful for children to experience other cultures in a more hands-on way,” she said. “It’s incredibly important for children to have self-expression.”
Through pysanky, the children dealt with the challenges of detailed work and learned to move forward when things went wrong.
Reynolds said she likes to present children with the pysanky tradition around Easter, not only because of the art’s springtime origin, but also for its purpose as a gift.
“You put so much effort into something and you let it go,” she said.
Gasps of pleasure and impatient cries of “Let me see!” echoed around the room as the activity drew to a close.
Each child would hold a colored egg close to the candle flame and watch as the soot-black beeswax wiped away to reveal brilliant colors preserved underneath.
As families left the library with the delicate gift to give away, they also took home a small piece of history.
“I think it’s really cool that I get to experience different cultures even though I’m not part of them,” said 12-year-old Marissa Sanchez.
Elizabeth Mesh, a professional artist and owner of New Mexico Artists for Hire — an educational art business that offers workshops and art-focused, teambuilding activities — has taken pysanky to another level. Learning to master the technique was her way of exploring her own heritage.
Mesh’s Polish grandparents did not share much of their heritage with her because they wanted her family to assimilate, she said.
Similar in technique to Ukrainian pysanky, the Polish version fascinated Mesh, and by learning the art form, she said, she grew closer to her Polish relatives and background.
“I did this to be Polish. Having ties to our cultures is vital to our world right now,” she said recently at her casita, where dozens of exquisite eggs stood in astonishing contrast to the finished works the children had held in their palms at the library.
Where first-timers struggle to create cohesive lines and designs on an egg, Mesh easily creates patterns smaller than a pinhead.
The important part of pysanky, she said, is not to give up.
“You have to understand the terrain of an egg to create it. I think this delicacy has brought me to what is beautiful and recognize that.
“… Being able to express with an egg, you see people on another level,” she added. “I see connecting with my own history helps me understand other people.”
After learning the traditional patterns used in pysanky, Mesh has veered into new territory, using eggs to express her own style — designs mostly inspired by lace. Through the art form, she has embraced her heritage while showing her individuality.
Continuing traditions such as pysanky, a process that allows internal meditations, is important, she said.
“It keeps us human,” she said. “It’s an exploration.”