Pysanky - Ukrainian Easter Eggs

I have made Pysanky since I was about 5 years old. I continue the tradition with my own kids and this year the Grade 3's will be making their own as well. UPDATE: You can see the eggs they made at the end of my latest post here.



Here is a step by step tutorial on the simple design they will be attempting.



Pysanky supplies are readily available both at Michaels and on the web. Why not start your own Easter tradition by making Pysanky. My kids love to make a special egg for their teacher as well as close relatives and friends. It's really not that hard and the results are spectacular.

Pysanky is a form of Batik done on eggs. The symbolism is often religious. Themes tend to center around wishes for the coming seasons, (spring, summer) wish for a good harvest, prosperity, hope, charity, fertility, etc.

These eggs will not be edible. You can keep them for years and years. I have some my great grandma made.

Materials Required:

eggs, you want nice large eggs that are well proportioned with no marks, bring them to room temperature and if needed you can wash with a little warm water and vinegar
pencil
Kistka, these are the pens we will make our design with
beeswax, you can get little cakes from Michaels or you may find a natural beeswax candle with no dyes or scent
candle
color dye, also available at Micheals or on the web...you need YELLOW, RED, BLACK, GREEN
jars
plastic spoons
paper towels
cloth rag
oil based shellac
wax paper





Make up your dyes as per the packet instructions. I make mine up in pint sized canning jars. I put the lids on whenever they are not in use as the dyes tend to evaporate quickly.


I keep all the jars together in a plastic rectangular container so I can move them around quite easily.


Take your egg. We are using raw eggs..don't blow them or boil them. The inside of the egg will eventually dry up. Blowing makes them too fragile and boiling leaves water under the shell that will destroy your design over time, not to mention you will lose a lot of eggs to cracking during the boiling.

We are going to divide the egg off for the design. We will use pencil for a guideline. The pencil marks will wipe off at the end...use fine lines and don't use a eraser if you make a mistake, it will leave a residue that will resist the dye...just leave it.

I work on top of a thick foam sheet (you know that foam that they have for kid's crafts...they have 1/4 inch thick sheets). I then place a paper towel on top. The foam helps protect the egg a bit.



Starting at the top of your egg draw a line all around it lengthwise dividing it in half.

Start at the top again and make a second line lengthwise to divide it into quarters.

Now run a line in the middle of the egg all the way around. Your egg should now be divided into 8 sections...4 on each half.



Now divide it on the diagonal....make sure to continue on the other side.






Place a small dot in each section about equal distance from the center. Do this on both sides of the egg.




Connect the dots like this forming a star pattern. Make sure to repeat this on the other side.




Light your candle. Heat up your Kristka in the flame...be careful not to set it on fire...adult supervision is obviously required for this project.



Heat for about 30 seconds.


Place pointy end into the beeswax....the wax will melt and fill up the reservoir.


Some books will tell you to place a small ball of wax in the funnel end but this is the way we have always done it and I find the kids can burn themselves placing the wax into the funnel as it stays pretty hot between passes into the flame.


We use beeswax because it turns dark from the carbon in the candle flame. It also has a high melting point so the wax won't melt from the heat of your hand smearing the design.


Apply to your egg. Hold your Kristka like a pencil..I like to have end sticking into my palm...I hold it steadier that way. Try to only make one pass, don't go over it again and again or it will look scratchy. You can test it out on the paper towel covering your work space.

When drawing on the design work in small sections and draw the line away from you...due to the curved nature of the egg you will draw a straighter line this way than drawing it towards you.



Draw over all your pencil lines with the wax....your egg should look like this.


Everywhere we have put the wax will now stay white for the finished product.


Place your egg into the yellow dye...make sure it has cooled down. (you use boiling water to mix the dye).


Use your plastic spoon to carefully lower into the jar. I can't tell you how many times I have accidentally cracked my egg by putting it into the dye too quickly.


When your dyes are new your egg will catch the color quite quickly...check it after 15 minutes.


If you are happy with the color remove from the dye with the spoon and place on some folded paper towel. Blot the egg dry carefully.

Add a teardrop shape in each section of the star. This will now stay yellow until the very end.



Also add some feather lines on either side of your diagonal lines like this.

Repeat on the other side. The feathering of your diagonal lines should meet up like this.

We are using very little green dye for this egg design so, instead of immersing it I am taking a Q-tip and dotting on where I want the green. Place dots above the star tips.

If we were to immerse the egg in the green dye we would have to follow up with an orange dye "wash". Green is one of those funny colors that adversely effects subsequent dyes. By putting your egg in an orange wash you neutralize this.

Cover up your dots with wax...they will now stay green till the end.

Place the egg into the red dye.


When the color looks good remove and blot on a folded paper towel.

Fill in the star with wax...make sure to try and get a good coating...even on my finished egg you will see little spaces where I didn't cover with enough wax...It's all part of this art medium...the little imperfections are what make the egg real.

Cover the star completely on both sides.

Place your egg into the black dye now.


Wait until the color is acceptable and then remove and blot dry with a folded paper towel.

Keep your paper towels...let them dry out and then reuse...just stick to the same colors each time.

You are now at the reveal stage. Hold your egg into the candle to melt the wax...only do a small section at a time...don't hold it too long in the flame as you can singe it and burn the shell.

Wipe the wax off with your cloth rag. Continue working on small sections until all the wax is removed.

If you get some soot marks from the candle don't worry they will wipe off with the cloth.

You can now shellac your egg to get a real shiny finish. Use an oil based shellac. The dyes are water based and if you use a water based shellac they will smear.....trust me, not something you want to do to an egg you have spent some quality time on. Place on wax paper. When one side has dried turn over to the other side. When the egg is no longer tacky you can store it or put it on display.

Remember these eggs are not edible.

Ta da!

Here is an egg one of my kids made. It was their own design.

I don't have many of theirs to show you as they tend to give them all away.

I hope you give Pysanky a try....it is a marvelous art form.

see you soon

gail

How to Make a Chinese Dragon Puppet

So I thought the Grade 3's should make a Dragon Puppet for Chinese New Year. They are learning about traditions and celebrations so this seemed to fit.

I original wanted to post this last week but life got in the way with doctor appts. and dentist appts. so here it is now.

This is quite a photo intensive tutorial but don't let that scare you off the results are worth it.











Part 1: Paper mache

Materials Required:

- duct tape..you can use plain old masking or cellophane as well
- cardboard egg carton
- piece of flat cardboard...like from a box
- newspaper or newsprint
- empty frozen juice container
- white glue
- recycled yogurt container to hold glue mixture
- paper towels




Take your egg carton and cut the lid off from the egg compartments.







Cut the lid in half and then cut out 2 egg cups.





Staple the cut ends of the lid like this.




It should now look like this.



Take one page of newspaper or newsprint and roll and crumple into a shape like this. It sort of looks like a snakes head.




Using tape attach it to the top of the lid like this.




Add another piece of tape to the front to make it secure.



Attach your egg cups to either side of your head to look like this.

It doesn't have to be pretty just secure.


This is the upper head of the Dragon.



Take your flat cardboard and cut a lower jaw. Again it is shaped like a snake head. I used my upper head to measure how big to make this.



Take your frozen juice container and cut down to the bottom. Gently pull the bottom away from the sides.





Cut the cardboard side piece into two.




You should have three pieces now.




Take a quarter of a page of newsprint and make a roll long ways. Tape together.



Tape onto your bottom jaw to make a gum line. This gives you a space to attach some teeth later.



Mix up some white glue with water, about a 50/50 mix.

Tear up some paper towels into strips.




Begin paper maching. For the frozen juice container piece, coat fully with two layers of mache. Make a lump of mache in the middle of the inside. This will give you a place to attach the stick later.



On the outside you can make some bumps for your dragon if you want. This is his back.


Make sure you "tape down" your bumps with strips of paper mache that overlap onto the main section otherwise your bumps will just fall off.




Mache your lower jaw, giving it two coats to cover.




Mache your upper head. Try to cover all areas. I added some bumps for nostrils on mine.




On the underside make a lump of mache at the end close to where you stapled this piece. Again this will give you a place to attach your stick later.


Place all pieces on wax paper and leave in a warm place to dry. Turn them after a day so they will dry on all sides.


Part 2: Batiking the Dragon Skin

Materials Required:

- Elmer's washable blue gel glue (you can use the clear but it will ooze more so you will loose definition in your design)
- piece of fabric about 6 inches wide and 20 inches long
- wax paper






Draw on with glue a scale design for your dragon skin. Follow the directions from my blue glue batik tutorial if you are not familiar with this technique.


Let dry.


Part 3: Painting

Materials Required:

- acrylic paint for the fabric
- tempura or acrylic paint for paper mache
- paintbrush
- water




When your paper mache pieces have dried paint them completely with the colors and design of your choice.

I decidied to use traditional colors for mine.





Paint your fabric as well with watered down acrylic paint. Let dry, wash out the glue in warm water. Dry again.

Part 4: Assembly

Materials Required:

- glue gun or tacky glue....I used the glue gun because it was faster. Remember to only let an adult use a glue gun, kids ask your parents for help with this part.
- two sticks..I used chopsticks from the dollar store
- white foam for teeth
- red felt
- any trims you want for embellishing
- scissors





Take your white foam and cut out some teeth shapes.

Glue to the inside of the upper jaw.

It should look something like this.

Glue some teeth to the inside of the lower jaw.

Taking an awl or knitting needle punch a hole thru the end of the lower jaw like this.

Make a hole in the upper jaw like this. Don't go all the way thru just even to hold your stick in place.

Make a hole in the back piece thru the lump you made, again don't go all the way thru just enough to hold the stick in place.

Push one stick thru the lower jaw hole.

Put some glue in the hole in the upper jaw and place end of stick that has the lower jaw on it in place.

Hold until glue sets up.

It should look like this.

Cut a tongue piece from the red felt.

Attach the straight end to the upper jaw like this using glue.

Glue the rest of the tongue in place in the lower jaw. This part is a little tricky but you'll get it.

Lay your dragon pieces on your dragon skin and figure out where you want it to go.

Cut the fabric where it will attach to the back piece. I left the tail piece to be longer.

Glue the short piece into place on the inside of the back.

You can trim it to fit or gather it to fit whatever look you prefer.

Glue other end of the short piece of fabric between the upper and lower jaw pieces.

It should look something like this.

Cut your longer piece to taper at the end like a tail.

Attach to the inside of the back piece with glue.

Glue second stick into place into the hole in the middle of back on the inside.

Hold into place until glue sets up.

If you wish you can add some embellishments. I put a fringe on for a beard.

I also put some trim on the eyebrows of my dragon.

That's it! A working dragon puppet. Well worth the effort. I can't wait to see how the Grade 3's will turn out. They are currently at the painting stage.

see you next time

gail