Easy Pysanky How-To (AKA Epic Easter Eggs!)

Easy Pysanky Easter Eggs

Originally Posted April 13, 2011. Updated 2/7/2021

Though I'm actually of Irish/Ojibwe/and French Canadian heritage, my best childhood memories of Easter are decidedly Ukrainian flavoured.

Manitoba is known for a huge population of Ukrainians. Huge! Excellent homemade perogies could be found anywhere... but I digress.

My grandmother's neighbor was Ukrainian, Easter meant that she'd bake up these wonderful citrussy breads - Paska - and share with us.

Oh, they were amazing. My favourite part of Easter, I still remember those delicious breads.

Another favourite part of Easter back then was seeing the Ukrainian Easter eggs, which would show up in advertising, or on display, or whatever.

I'd marvel at the intricate designs, the bright colors. Tons of beauty and talent, right there.

What is Pysanky? What is Pysanka?

Pysanky refers to the Ukrainian art of decorating super ornate Easter eggs using a wax resist dye method.

Artists use a stylus called a “Kistka / Kistky” - basically a stick with a small, open-tipped well to hold - and melt - beeswax, to write their designs on the egg.

The wax masks off the egg - whether white (before dyeing), or after subsequent dye baths. The wax design prevents the colour being written on from taking on dye, in the areas covered by that wax.

The egg goes through multiple steps of masking and dyeing, producing a multicoloured design.

Once the design work is complete and the egg has been dyed in its final colour, the was is melted off, and the design is revealed.

“Pysanka” is the singular form - a Pysanka egg, “Pysanky” is the plural.

Pysanky Designs

Traditional Pysanky tends to feature designs that incorporate one or more of a few different design themes. These include:

- Religious (specifically Christian) imagery. Churches, religious iconography, goddess motifs, etc

- Nature imagery. Flowers, trees, birds, deer, etc

- Geometric Designs

- References to the sun

Many of these designs are done incredibly tiny, in repetition and in concert with other elements.

As crayons are nowhere near as suited for doing the kind of fine detail utilized in traditional, authentic Ukrainian pysanky designs, I usually play a bit loose with the designs.

Have fun with it!

Ukrainian Easter Eggs, As a Kid ...

One year - I'm sure I was probably in grade 4 or 5 - my class went to the Ukrainian Cultural & Educational Centre to learn how to make the eggs.

We were given the little tools to draw wax designs on our eggs. We'd scoop some wax into the little well, use a candle to melt it, and draw our initial outlines on.

We'd dye it, dry it, draw more wax on... lather, rinse, release.

When we were done, we'd carefully hold our eggs up near the candle flame, to melt all of the wax we'd drawn on, to reveal all of the colors that we'd protected from subsequent dye baths.

Although none of our eggs looked anything like the gorgeous egg art displayed in the Center, it was a lot of fun.

I've always loved learning new skills, and I've always loved learning about other cultures.

Date Night Easter Eggs!

The other day, I was thinking about how much fun I'd had back then, and decided that I would try it again, with my husband.

As we're both sort of anti social, doing so at home was the most attractive option.

As I didn't own any Pysanky tools, I needed to either buy some, or some up with an alternate way to get the wax on the eggs.

I briefly considered painting melted wax on with art brushes... but then thought of another way - CRAYONS!

So, we bought some crayons and eggs, and went to it.

We had a BALL!

It was so much fun, and definitely an interesting, fun alternative to our usual Tuesday night "date night".

Though our results were far from professional - and DEFINITELY not authentic Ukrainian Easter eggs, they were definitely more interesting than your average "egg dyeing kit" results... and really easy!

This is a fun craft for kids AND adults or all skill levels. Let me show you how to do it!

Easy Ukrainian Easter Egg Design Tips

Easy Pysanky Equipment Tips

- You WILL break crayons. Have a lot on hand, and consider them disposable. The Dollar Store is your friend!

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- Make sure you aren’t using any kind of “special” crayons - glitter, etc. MOST IMPORTANTLY: DO NOT USE WASHABLE CRAYONS.

When re-shooting for this entry, I didn’t notice that the crayons I’d purchased were washable. After spending hours designing and dyeing the eggs, they ended up completely ruined.

Washable = dye will permeate them!

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That said, beeswax crayons are the best to use, and will prevent the “patina” that I describe a bit later on.

They’re expensive, though, so I usually don’t bother. I can handle a bit of dye showing through on my designs!

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- The amount of time an egg needs to spend in the dye will depend on the type of dye used, the colour of dye, and the colour you’re wanting to achieve. It can be 5 seconds, it can be 5 minutes.

Just pull it out every once in a while and see where it’s at.

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- Sometimes eggs can be weird. If you find that the wax isn’t sticking, or the dye is not taking to it well, you can try washing the eggs.

To do this, mix ½ cup water and ¼ cup vinegar. Let the eggs soak in it for a minute, then gently give it a scrub and rinse.

Allow to fully dry before drawing on or dyeing the eggs.

Easter Egg Technique Tips

- Always gently dab the eggs to dry off, don’t *rub* them, and don’t rinse in water.

I like to roll them around on some paper towel to remove the excess, then dab with a fresh paper towel.

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- Eggs should be very dry before you draw on them, or the wax won’t stick.

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- Try to use a different color after each dye bath, so you can tell what you drew last time around, and which is new. Depending on the design, it CAN get confusing after a couple colors.

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- You don't NEED white, and you don't NEED to end with your darkest color.

Some of the prettiest designs don't have one of those - or either of them. It can be very tempting to use every color, so try to break out of the habit!

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- If you don't *completely* cover a spot with wax, the next color of dye can/will seep in.

If this happens, shrug it off and claim you meant to. It's like... Easter Egg Patina finish. Yes. That's what it is.

You read it here first, I pioneered crayon Easter Egg Patina. Royalties, baby!

Miscellaneous

- If you don't have ankle biters around, this is a GREAT date night activity. Especially with booze.

I tried to get #DrunkenPysankyMaking to trend on Twitter last night, to no avail. Regardless, it was fun, and highly recommended!

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- I recommend looking at the eggs you decorate with this method to be decorative only, and NOT plan on serving them.

It’s best to decorate them while raw, and they’ll be out of the fridge for a fair amount of time.

The dyes you use - especially if you’re using the good stuff - can render the eggs toxic at worst, or “not food grade” at best.

Finally, even if you’re using food safe dyes and are careful about temperatures / time out of the fridge, the egg you’re left with once you’ve dyed it doesn’t lend itself to eating, TBH.

You can’t boil it, and the times/temps to remove the wax only end up half baking the eggs.

Make something pretty, enjoy the look. Not everything needs to be edible!

Preserving the eggs is an option, I’ll address that further down in the tutorial.

Easy Pysanky Supplies Needed

Brown craft paper or newspaper
Napkins or paper towels. LOTS.
Egg Dyes and/or food coloring
Vinegar
Cups or bowls for dye
Spoons
Raw eggs
Crayons - NOT the washable type.
Candles, optional

A Note on the Dye

As a kid, I used store-bought Easter egg dye kits, which were OK... but not amazing.

The first time we did this, I mixed a bit of Americolor Gel Food Colouring with some hot water and vinegar.

I had a ton of it on hand, as a cake decorator. It allowed for MUCH brighter, more intense colours... including black. (See the very bottom of this post for photos from that night!) Exposure to moisture - such as the beading that ended up happening (I'll come back to this in a bit) was a problem.

This time around, I decided to look into actual pysanky dyes. I found an online shop, Ukrainian Eggcessories with just what I needed. I was shocked at how cheap the proper dyes were, so I bought a few.

As a bonus? Apparently when stored in a cool, dark place, these dyes can last 2-4 years!

Money well spent!

Aside from the dyes being SO much better to work with than the previous dyes we'd used, Kathy - the business owner - was SUPER helpful to deal with. I've already placed a second order, after having finished the photography for this post update.

So, if you're looking for really great dyes to do this ridiculous little technique of mine, or want to go all out and get the legit tools... I highly recommend their site!

Also, they have a Facebook Page, Instagram, Twitter, a helpful resource page, AND a Facebook group!

Be sure to check them out!

How to Make Pysanky Eggs, The Easy Way

Design Your Easter Eggs

Decide on what you're looking to design, and what colors you're using.

Prepare Your Egg Dyes

- Mix up your egg dyes according to instructions. We actually used Americolor food coloring, guessing at the amount.

- If your dye instructions (assuming NOT using pysanky-specific dye!) don't include the addition of vinegar, I highly recommend adding some - about 1-2 tablespoon per dye cup.

This results in much more vibrant colors on the finished eggs. If you'd prefer to do pastel colored Pysanky, then skip the vinegar!

Prepare Your Work Surface

Cover your entire work surface with brown craft paper or newspaper - preferably a few layers, if using newspaper.

Put a good stack of napkins or paper towels at each seat - you will go through a ton of them!

Add 1 spoon to each dye cup, and line them up on your work surface, progressing from light to dark. Our dyes were ordered: Yellow, Red, Green, Blue, Black.

If you have food coloring bottles, dye jars, or anything else, it can be helpful to place them in front of their respective dye cups - for identification.

Set out your crayons and eggs, and you’re good to go!

Start Writing Your Pysanky - First Colour

If you are using any white in your design, draw that part of it onto the egg with a crayon.

Make sure that any lines or spaces that you want white are completely covered - you are using the wax to protect that part of the egg from subsequent dye baths!

Once you are satisfied that all of your white is drawn on, dye your egg in the lightest color you'll be using.

If you are not using white in your design, dye your egg in the lightest color you are using.

Allow your egg to sit in the dye for about 2 minutes, until the egg is the desired vibrancy.

Use a spoon to remove egg from dye, pat - don’t rub - COMPLETELY dry with paper towels.

Next Colour...

When egg is completely dry, use your crayon to draw on the design for the color you just dyed.

For instance, if your egg is now yellow, draw the yellow part of your design on with the crayon.

Dye egg in the next lightest color you're using.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

This egg went from white (petals) to yellow (center of daisies, sun), to green (stems and leaves) to blue (final colour / background).

Which colours you use will depend on your design. Just have fun with it!

Here are a few more progressions:

Once all of your eggs are fully designed and have gone through their final dye bath, dry them all off completely (this is very important). We placed ours on a baking sheet lined with paper towels.

Remove The Wax

While I initially learned the “hold the egg up to a candle to melt the wax off, bit by bit” method, there is a much better way:

The oven. Yes!

Heat your oven to 175 F.

Space your eggs out on a baking sheet lined with paper towels. If the eggs are rolling around, you can wad up some paper towel between them.

Place them in the oven for 10-12 minutes, allowing the wax from the crayons to soften and melt.

Take one egg out, and use a paper towel to gently rub off the wax, revealing your final design.

Sometimes, not all the wax will come off on the first attempt. Just place the egg back in the oven for another few minutes, and rub it again.

Repeat - one at a time - until the wax is removed from all your eggs.

A Caveat About The Oven Method

The first time we ever did this easy way of making wax resist eggs, we ran into a problem with getting the wax off:

I don't know if it was our dye (We had used Americolor food colouring, vinegar, and water) or the fact that the eggs were hard boiled (something we don’t do anymore), but we found that the oven caused moisture droplets to appear, and ruin the dye job!

Our darkest eggs were left with neon pink dots on it, almost looking like someone had splattered bleach on it.

The solution we figured out after our first batch turned out weird:

Use a mini muffin tin. Lay paper towels out over the impressions, and gently rest your eggs on top.

Bake for about 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven, carefully blot away any moisture.

If any wax is melted, gently rub it off AFTER removing the moisture droplets.

Return to oven, bake another 3 minutes, repeat. Do this until all of the wax is removed.

Note: Using the Ukrainian EggCessories dye and NOT boiling the eggs completely avoids this problem altogether.

Removing the wax - Candle Method

This is slightly more labor intensive - and not as kid-friendly as the oven method, but it’s worth mentioning.

To do so, hold your finished-design, DRY egg up near your flame.

Don't let it touch the flame, or hold it OVER the flame - you don't want it to smoke, as it may ruin your egg.

Allow a small section of wax to melt, and gently rub it off with a paper towel. Repeat, until your whole egg is revealed!

Preserving Your Easy Pysanky

I’ve never bothered to preserve my decorated Easter eggs. With 7 cats, this household isn’t really suitable for super fragile things!

However, if you’ve created something you really love and would like to keep around, you have a few options.

Let it Dry Out

If you don’t varnish it, the egg can apparently just dry out on its own, over time.

Best to not do this in the sun, as your un-varnished egg can discolour.

Also, a big caveat: some eggs will just blow up or go bad, so this is very hit or miss.

If you DO manage to end up with a dried out egg, go ahead and use an oil based varnish to protect it.

Empty the Egg

Emptying the egg is the preferred base method for keeping an egg long term.

You can buy pre-emptied eggs and just start out from scratch with that nonsense taken care of for you, or you can CAREFULLY tap a couple holes into your egg and blow it out yourself.

This is something I tried as a kid. Frankly, I’m just far too clumsy to work with super fragile empty eggs, so I’m just going to link you to Eggs.ca’s tutorial on how to create hollow eggs!

Once your egg is completely finished, you can paint it with an oil based varnish to protect it.

The Klingon Easter Egg

Of COURSE - we *had* to make a Klingon Easter Egg:

@jenusellis had the cutest comment on our tweeted picture:

"LOL Is that a Klingon egg amidst the other pretty ones? 🙂 Easter FtlhW"

Hahaha! 'FthlW'!!! Love it! I have the *best* Twitter tweeps!

Older Photos

Photos from earlier versions of this post: