Defense and order Knowledge: Raspberry Duck Pysanky

Duck egg Pysanka

Red-
Happiness, hope, passion, blood

White-
Light, purity and innocence

Geometric shapes for knowledge, pine needles for health and youth. Fishing nets, fisher of men and curls for defense and protection.

My process in making these is fairly traditional. All are one of a kind pieces that are hand made in my studio. I am American born, Ukrainian and learned the art from my baba.

Process:
First I empty the contents so what is left is a hollow egg that will last for as long as you don't drop it. I do this by scoring a hole, using a drill bit by hand and a pump to displace the goo out the little hole. Some people do this as the last step after writing, there are pros and cons to each approach. After careful washing, sterilizing and drying the blank canvas is prepared. I use a metal tool called a Kistka and fill it with beeswax. In order to do so I heat the tool using a stick and beeswax candle. Yup a candle. Then heat the beeswax until the desired flow of liquid wax. Just like ink in a pen…. Sorta. The wax acts as a mask so in theory you start with your first color, usually the eggshell color, and write a wax pattern or area. Then dip in dye and repeat the process. Once the design is complete I use my candle to melt off the wax revealing my layers of color. Some people use electric kistkas, and other modern wax removing techniques (no hate) but I do not and enjoy the tactile feel of metal wax and fire. I use aniline dye and finish with sunflower oil then an archival gloss coat.

Even though an archival order gloss coat was used, it is still recommended to keep the piece out of direct sunlight to preserve color vibrancy. Or not, sometimes that looks cool too.