Saturday, February 24, 2007

Before I learned to knit (continued)...

...I learned to make Ukrainian Easter Eggs. In 1987 I took a 3-hour class at a local museum and fell in love. I still love to do this but finding the time and the space is a problem. Being a draftsmen most of my life has lead to a love of geometry and drawing geometric patterns on the curved surface of an egg is endlessly fascinating. After the class I went home and immersed myself in egg decorating. I ordered more supplies and books from Hanusey Music & Gifts in Philadelphia. I made a lot of eggs and sold some in a gift shop and at a craft show. I taught classes and had a great time turning others on to this great art form.

The eggs shown in these photos are all chicken eggs except the one in the middle of the photo above which is a duck egg. I stick to the traditional Ukrainian symbols and designs because I like the idea that they started out as pagan symbols and even though they were later given new meanings by the Christian church the pagan influence still remains.

I won't go into great detail about how they are created because Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka the Yarn Harlot) did a great pictorial about the process. I have an electric kiska (the tool used to apply the beeswax) that has interchangable points for fine, medium and heavy lines. I think one of things that I like best about doing eggs is the smell of melted beeswax. What could possibly be closer to nature than raw eggs and beeswax?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooh. They are so beautiful!

Stephanie said...

Those are GORGEOUS!!!

Margaret said...

Just amazing!