Craft

Decorated Eggs

Source

Ukrainians are famous for their decorated Easter eggs called pysanky. A design is drawn on an egg with beeswax (melted over a flame) using a drawing tool called a kistka. The egg is dipped in a series of dyes, from lightest to darkest and each time a little more design is added in wax. Layers of colour and design are built up until the final incredible design emerges. The following craft uses a "wax-relief" method without using melted beewax or an open flame. Traditional pysanky use mostly the colours yellow, red, green, and black, but you can choose any colours you like.

Materials

• an egg
• wax crayons
• coloured dyes (like the ones used for Easter eggs) or food colouring (which will produce lighter shades), prepared in advance
• newspaper (to protect your table from spills)
• glass or jar (one for each colour of dye)
• spoon
• paint and brush (if painting your eggs rather than using dye)

Instructions

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Materials needed for decorated eggs.		Step 1. Take an egg (you can hard-boil it before you begin, or blow it out when you are finished). With crayons, draw a design on your egg. Use as many different colours as you like but remember to leave some of the egg white.

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Step 2. Prepare your egg dye ahead of time (follow the instructions on your egg dye package, or add a few drops of food colouring to water. The more food colouring you use, the darker the colour will be.) Dip your egg in a bowl of coloured dye or paint your egg. The dye or paint will not cover anywhere you have crayoned.		Your egg is finished! Make more if you like. Experiment with different designs and colours.