Intricate and Beautiful Ukrainian Egg Decorating Styles

Just in time for Easter, we came across these beautiful and intricate egg decorating styles from Ukraine called Pysanky, which go back hundreds or even thousands of years.

The traditional decorating involves an ancient and effective wax-resistant method of drawing and coloring eggs.

While the eggs are now referred to in the Easter tradition, the art form goes way back to before Ukraine practiced Christianity.

Via Kottke.

Found in a book published in 1968, it’s fascinating to see the breakdown of distinct styles that reference different parts of Ukraine’s regional heritage and tradition.

The designs are “written” in hot wax with a special tool called a kistka (кістка) which has a small funnel attached to hold a small amount of liquid wax.

The wax protects the pores of the shell from the dye. The artist, known as a pysankarka (писанкарка) writes parts of the design, dyes the egg one color, and writes more until the end, when all the layers of wax are melted off to reveal the final design.

Western Podillia

The pysanky on this page are all from the western part of Podillia (see map here), and many display a berehynia (goddess) or serpent motif. Podillia has managed to preserve many ancient pysanka designs and patterns.
-Via Pysanky.info:

Mix of Regions

This plate is geographically scattered, with pysanky from western Podillia, as on the previous plate, as well as from Left Bank Ukraine (see map here). Pysanky from eastern Podillіa are ornamentally distinct; “Berhynia” (Great Goddess, above) motifs are more common in the western region.

Kyiv

These pysanky are all from the region of Ukraine’s ancient capital, Kyiv (see map here).  Note, though, that the first egg in the first row is a depiction of a Kyivan Rus’ era ceramic pysanka, not a traditional pysanka pattern.

Southwestern Ukraine

Odesa is located in the far south of Ukraine, on the shores of the Black Sea.  Bukovyna is a large multi-ethnic region split between Rumania (Bucovina)) and Ukraine; its main city is Chernivtsi. (See map here). Examples of pysanky from the northern (північна) and southern (південна) parts of Bukovyna are given.