Pysanky 2012

It's Easter weekend and in my family that means it's time to write pysanky! Every Good Friday we have a huge egg decorating/baking/chocolate making party at my parents' place. Over the years, we've experimented with a variety of styles of egg decorating. Although we don't have any Ukrainian heritage, we've discovered the art of pysanky. It's a wax resist process where you write on the egg with a kistka, a tool that leaves a line of beeswax on your egg. I usually create the traditional designs but this year I wanted to try a quilting-based pattern. Here are our creations for 2012!

 This egg has tumbling blocks design which you're probably familiar with if you're a quilter! I used the step by step illustrations in the wonderful book Decorating Eggs: Exquisite Designs with Wax & Dye by Jane Pollak to create my egg.

 After the inital lines were applied. Ready for the first dye bath!

After the first dye bath, I applied wax to the diamonds to protect the light blue colour while dipping the egg into the dye again to get a darker blue. (sorry for the blurry photo!)

 My husband is a skilled pysanky writer as well and this year he went with chevrons, a very on-trend design.

He also made this striped egg. 

Have you ever tried pysanky? If you want to give it a try, I'd recommend Baba's Beeswax (based in Richmond, BC) for all the supplies you need. Did you decorate any eggs this week?