Pysanky Ukrainian egg decorating tradition kept alive in Sonoma County

Many people feeling heartbroken and helpless over the suffering in war-torn Ukraine are turning for hope and comfort to an ancient Ukrainian tradition of elaborate egg decorating this Easter.

Even those with no ethnic or familial ties to Ukraine are experimenting with pysanky, a process of inscribing designs and symbols on eggs with hot beeswax and dying them, often layer upon layer. When the wax is finally removed, ornate designs are revealed.

“It’s like a magic trick,” says Whitney Badgett, a Point Arena artist who over the years has taught classes on the North Coast in pysanky egg decorating. “As the layers reveal themselves, you discover new things. It’s really exciting.”

Many other Central and Eastern European ethnic groups decorate eggs for Easter under different names using the same wax-resist method, which has been likened to batik on fabric. Badgett learned the art about 15 years ago from a fellow professor at the University of Montana who was Polish.

As an artist specializing in miniature paintings, Badgett found the idea of delicately writing on fragile eggs intriguing.

“The finished products have these intricately detailed designs that are geometric, like Islamic art. I just thought they were beautiful and the process was really interesting,” she said.

Ancient art

The practice dates back to pagan times, when people decorated eggs believing that great powers were embodied in them. Eggs symbolized the release of the earth from the bonds of winter and with it the promise of new life, hope and prosperity. Christians later took over the tradition and layered on it their own symbolism and meaning, including the Resurrection and the promise of eternal life.

The practice has long had a following, and materials and kits can be purchased at many art supply stories and online at places like Etsy and Amazon.

Margaret Connor, co-owner of Art & Soul in Sebastopol, said she carries individual materials as well as kits for both children and adults with everything needed to get started. That includes dyes, beeswax and several kistkas, the fine-tip writing tools used to create the designs in wax on the eggs. She also has egg blowers, egg holders and the loops you can attach to eggs to hang them for display.

By far the most popular source for all things pysanky is the Ukrainian Gift Shop (Ukrainiangiftshop.com). For 75 years, the Minneapolis-based company has specialized in tools, supplies and design books and claims to be the largest pysanky supplier in the world.

To clear up any confusion about nomenclature, these elegant eggs that put American Easter egg dye kits to shame are referred to as both pysanka and pysanky. Pysanka is singular and pysanky is plural.

Dennis Bolt of Sebastopol has been making pysanky eggs for eight years, adding more to his collection each year. He also has taught pysanky to children through the Pleasant Hill Christian School as a project during the pandemic.

“As a graphic artist, I love how graphic they are and how intricate they can be or how simple they can be and how small. They don’t take up a lot of space,” he said. “Like with quilting, you need rooms of fabric to fulfill your quilting fantasy. With eggs, I keep all the supplies in one plastic bin. And if I want to take it out and sit at the kitchen table for a few hours, I can. It’s a perfect craft from someone who wants something to do and doesn’t have a lot of space or a lot of money. And once you do a few, it’s amazing how good you can get.”

Over time you can develop a steadier hand and become more practiced at writing in wax, he said.

The art is often referred to as “writing pysanky.” There are many traditional geometric designs and symbols, each with different meanings, from religious symbols such as crosses and stars to symbols from nature like animals and flowers.

Various villages and families frequently had their own symbols, which were passed down through the generations. Some of the meanings are lost to time.

“There are even a lot of variations on each symbol,” said Amelia Randich, a fourth-generation Ukrainian and pysanky artist from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where many Ukrainian immigrants settled in the early 1900s. “A lot of the symbols go back to pagan roots. There are a lot of symbols about the sun and bringing back the sun during the spring equinox and longer days.

Also found, she added, are totemic objects that bless the household and bless the fields and animals and plants.

Different ethnographic regions in Ukraine also developed their own colors, based on what was available to them for dyes, said Randich, who was taught the art at age 5 and has been practicing it ever since, creating eggs with both traditional and original contemporary designs. Pysanky as it is practiced now requires a particular type of aniline dye, which comes in powder form.

Show of solidarity

This year many pysanky artists and hobbyists are making eggs in blue and yellow, the colors of Ukraine’s flag, in a show of ethnic pride or solidarity with the suffering nation under siege. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, more than 1,800 Ukrainians have been killed and 4.7 million refugees have fled the country.

The crisis in Ukraine has brought many newcomers to pysanky; they are connecting with the art through Facebook groups and taking part in efforts to raise money for refugee relief, such as the Pysanky for Peace Project. The project aims to create and collect 100,000 pysanky and use them to raise funds for ongoing humanitarian efforts in Ukraine while also broadening awareness of the cultural importance of pysanky to the Ukrainian people.

Tammy Budnovitch, a third-generation Ukrainian also from the Scranton area and manager of the Pysanky by Tammy Facebook page, said people feel a particular urgency this year to keep the tradition of pysanky alive. With the devastation in Ukraine in mind, she recalled an old Ukrainian legend behind the art which tells of a monster chained to a mountain.

“As long as pysanky are written, those chains will stay tight and good will prevail over evil,” said Budnovitch, who does her part by teaching classes in pysanky. “For those of us that do write pysanky, that has even more meaning now. We want those chains tight on that monster. We just have to pray and write pysanky.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com.