The Inspiration of Ukrainian Pysanky

The first hand-painting technique I want to show you is inspiring on so many levels. Variations and riffs on it can be applied to all sorts of hand painted objects including beads and pendants. It is the beautiful Ukrainian art form known as Pysanky.  Pysanky is an Easter egg decorating tradition. Using a wax resist method applied with a small stylus, the artist weaves layer upon layer of dye to create kaleidoscope effects and dazzling color combinations.



Pysanka comes from the verb pysaty, which means ‘to write’. Technically the Pysanky artists do not consider what they do to be painting but writing on the egg itself.  Traditional handmade dyes in earthy colors, yellow, brown, green, red and black would have been used in the days before store bought vivid colors.

Contemporary pysanky takes full advantage of heavily pigmented dyes making for really vibrant and colorful eggs. Amazingly though, most of the artisans stay close to traditional roots and use the colors of the earth.  Each color can have it's own meaning. The shapes and patterns used have highly symbolic meaning and the eggs are given as a blessing or an object of luck at Easter time. I love this tradition and I approach making my beads and my own hand painted objects with this intention.

Below is a sample sheet of some of the symbol and pattern meanings used in pysanky. The patterns are usually geometric and very symmetrical in effect. Modern pysanka cover the whole range of design though, from traditional to the very modern.

For a detailed description of the history of the tradition check out the great write up on 

Wikipedia.

For an exceptional “How-To” and complete technical info check out this site – learnpysanky.com

While the traditional pysanky application does not lend itself to surfaces other than eggshell, the idea of layers, masking and line in hand painted designs could definitely be explored. Riffs that can be done on the colors and the patterns are endless.

Just check out the Google image search – Pysanky.

 Pysanky is a treasure trove of ideas for the miniature artist and hand painter. Don't look at them and think - "Hmm, those are some beautiful eggs." Instead think "wow... what can I do with all these colors, these patterns!"

Now, to the studio to start experimenting with all of this inspiration!