Re: [BKARTS] Psyanki eggs (if you're interested)

[Pamela Rups <pamela.rups@xxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know if pysanki eggs were traditionally made of wood.  The  
ones I know of are made with real eggs in a very time-consuming  
process of resist and dyeing.

If you want white lines, then you start with a white egg before doing  
any dyeing.  You then take a special brass-headed stylus and heat it  
over a candle flame, and then push it into a cake of beeswax so the  
melted wax accumulates in a tiny reservoir.  You then draw thin lines  
on the egg with the melted beeswax in the stylus.  Wherever you draw  
will remain white.  Then you dye the egg in the lightest color you  
want in the design, perhaps yellow, and draw melted wax lines where  
you want that color to appear.  Then you dye the egg in the next  
darkest color, and so on to your darkest color, which is usually a  
navy blue or black.

The egg now has all this sooty wax all over it and looks, well,  
rather ugly.  The best part is always holding the egg over the gas  
burner on the stove (or some other non-sooty heat source) and then  
wiping the melted wax off the egg.  It's a magical moment to see all  
the colors in the intricate design pop out.

Traditionally the eggs were given to family, neighbors, and special  
people such as the local priest.  Young girls would make special eggs  
for young men they favored.  A legend that I know of says that the  
people tossed the broken eggshells into streams so the secluded monks  
downstream would know it was Easter.  At least these things are what  
I have been told.

My family are not of Russian descent, but we did blow eggs and do  
psyanki designs on them for Christmas ornaments.  This was just  
something we discovered and did for fun.  I don't know if they still  
exist, but we got our things in a kit and could buy more supplies  
from the same source.  I saw the same kit in a store in Toronto when  
I was there several years back, so you can probably order the  
supplies online.

Pam

************************************************

Pamela Rups
Coordinator, Instructional Technology Center
Office of Information Technology
Western Michigan University
Kalamazoo, MI  49008
269.387.5016


On Aug 18, 2006, at 11:08 AM, John Cutrone wrote:

Howsabout an artists' book to assist in planning your Russian adventure?
Here are some views and commentary of "The Red Square--Moscow" by Gea
Grevink:

http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/jafferedsquare.htm


Just for the fun of it, of course, and since we're all book artists,  
anyway.


By the way, at Convivio Bookworks, we bought a supply of painted wooden
pysanki eggs from a family of craftsfolk there in Moscow for our Book of
Days Catalog. We never got to meet the family, but it was pretty  
thrilling
to get packages from Russia loaded with Cyrillic printed words...  
kind of
like opening a book in a language you can't read. And I swear the  
eggs were
still cold when we received them here in Florida. When the family  
shipped
the eggs to us, the temperature in Moscow, they said, was 40 below  
zero...
which is way beyond the comprehension of this Florida Boy. The  
pysanki are
at:

http://www.conviviobookworks.com/pages/BODC%20Spring%20Pysanki% 
20Painted%20E
ggs.html


Enjoy your adventure!

John Cutrone
Book Arts Coordinator
The Arthur & Mata Jaffe Collection: Books as Aesthetic Objects
Florida Atlantic University Libraries
http://www.jaffecollection.org

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            ***********************************************
                                   
Guild of Book Workers' 100th Anniversary Exhibition Now Online - Catalog Available
              <http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/gbw/>
                                   
                   Flag Book Bind-O-Rama and Exhibit
                  Entry Deadline, September 15, 2006
                                   
            For all your subscription questions, go to the
                     Book_Arts-L FAQ and Archive.
                                   
         See <http://www.philobiblon.com> for full information
            ***********************************************