UnSpace

White areas are covered first.

The first step is to draw lightly some guidelines on the egg with a sharp pencil. Then you put down the wax where you want the white to be. Whatever you put wax on top of, that will be the color in that place of the egg when it's finished. Here, I've put down where I want the white to be.

Egg after yellow dye.

Here's the same egg after the egg has been soaked in yellow dye. Everything under the black wax will be white. Any wax that goes on now will cover yellow.

The beeswax, by the way, is naturally yellow, but the soot from the candle contaminates the beeswax, making it darker. As Microsoft would say, this is a feature, not a bug. The soot makes the beeswax easier to see.

Egg in the green dye.

Dyes were made using secret family recipes in the Ukraine, recipes that would be passed down mother to daughter. Today in the United States, we buy packages of dyes. I could probably make a few dyes if I wanted to, but why when the stuff comes pre-packaged?

We're storing the dyes in Ziplock containers (the small ones). They work pretty well. The dyes can be used for several years, I've been told. At the rate Nancy's making eggs, though, I doubt it! If a dye gets weak, supposedly adding another teaspoon of vinegar helps.

The kistka is heated using a candle.

The wax is applied using a kistka. The kistka is a stick with a copper funnel attached to one end. The funnel has a teeny opening at the bottom. The copper holds the heat, so the beeswax will flow for a while. When the kistka touches the egg, the wax will flow out. Try to hold the kistka perpendicular to the egg — you get more uniform lines and don't damage the shell.

The hotter the wax, the thinner it is and the faster it runs. If you just added wax, often the kistka will be too hot and the wax will come out quickly in a blob.

Here, Nancy's drawing on the egg with the kistka.

Since we're using dyes, Nancy and I dress in old clothing. She's absolutely going to hate this picture. She looks grubby. Who wears new clothes to play with dyes designed to stain permanently?

Drawing with the kistka takes patience and a steady hand. I may lack in both, so my eggs aren't as nice as Nancy's. This is not a fun hobby for people with untreated ADHD or Parkinson's. The more eggs you do, the better they get, though.

This egg has been dyed several times and is about to go into yet another bath.

Colors are applied, lightest first. In some cases, it's hard to tell what's lightest. Usually, the new color simply replaces the old, but on occasion we've had dyes blend, usually producing brown. The brown looks pretty nice, though, so who cares?

If you get wax on your hands, you can leave a mark on the egg. The machinery that handles eggs damages the surface — sometimes you'll see roller marks. There are places to get eggs for pysanky, but I haven't found them yet. These are from the grocery store.

Eggs on the heating board.

Here's a board with nails driven through it. You put it in the oven at 205F (210F on our oven — it's always 5F shy) until the oven comes up to temperature and then you wait 15 minutes. The eggs are hot and slippery when they come out. You've been warned! The wax wipes off easily and the eggs look great.

A last step is to varnish the eggs. We haven't done that yet, so I can't show you photos of someone holding a pool of varnish in their hands and coating the eggs. The board can be used to let the varnish dry, too.