Community Corner

Making Ukranian Easter Eggs (with VIDEO)

Hand-made Ukranian Easter eggs are more than just something to make for the holiday.

Eggs the color of sunset - outlined in gold or striped with deep reds, greens, blues and blacks - sit in an egg carton placed on a picnic table behind the home of Liti Haramaty. They are the result of years of practice and hard work.

“I first started one day 20 years ago when I didn’t have a job for a few months,” she said earlier this week. “I can’t tell you when or why I picked up my first egg and painted it.”

Haramaty has been designing Ukrainian Easter Eggs, or Pysanky eggs, for more than 20 years and says the technique is more than just dye pellets and vinegar purchased at the supermarket, but a painstaking process that is as rewarding as it is challenging.

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“The cool thing is that you can read about it in a book, but when you start doing it, there are a lot of little things you need to learn,” she said.

Haramaty got her start by attending a one-day seminar, then spent time working with a group of artists and hours by herself perfecting the craft. The process begins first by selecting your eggs. Turkey, chicken, quail, goose or any other will do. In fact, picking her “canvass” is one of Haramaty’s favorite parts.

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“An egg is a perfect size and shape to hold in the hand and work on,” she said. “I like to work on small things, other crafts that I have done were almost always small. I find it interesting to work on a three dimensional surface. Each egg is a different shape and I always look at the shape before I decide on a design. Some are round, some are long, some are symmetrical, some are not.”

Once you have an egg, and really, almost any kind will do, the next step is to either dye the egg or begin making designs on it by using melted wax. Once the wax is applied, the egg can be colored once again before repeating the process. At the end, the wax is removed, revealing each color it was melted over.

“I like the reverse painting technique, you really have to think of where you apply the wax, and even so it is always a surprise to see what it looks like when finished,” said Haramaty.

She said the end result is almost “magical” with the egg transforming from a black, waxy odd shaped thing into a vividly colored object.

She and her family may not celebrate Easter, but that doesn’t stop them from enjoying the art form and craft. She said she approaches the process not as an Easter tradition, but as a celebration of spring and renewal.

“My family does not celebrate Easter, but since eggs have been a symbol of spring from ancient times and in different cultures, I feel there is a special human connection in working with something that is available to almost anyone almost anywhere,” she said.

The craft also has given Haramaty and her family one more thing to enjoy together, and she enjoys seeing her children be creative in the process and design.

“It is a great joy for a parent that the kids share an interest,” she said. 


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