Painting Easter Eggs

Eggs are a symbol of the beginning of life and at the same time a reminder that God sacrificed himself to give us all new life. Easter eggs and   Easter eggs are traditionally prepared. In the past, krapanki and scrobanks were also prepared, but you will hardly find them in the modern Easter basket. The color of eggs and drawings on Easter eggs also have their own meanings. For example, the red color of the eggs equates to the blood shed by the Savior and the joy of life, it can be achieved thanks to a decoction of onion. Previously, there had to be 13 eggs - as a reminder of Christ and his 12 apostles.

The ornament of Easter eggs differs significantly in different regions of the country. For example, in Podilly Easter eggs were often decorated with twisted lines, the so-called "infinity", in which the evil force was supposed to get entangled. And in the Hutsul region , eggs were painted with deer and horses, which, according to ancient beliefs, carried the sun. 

Pysanka were not eaten, but made as amulets, and they were eaten with krashanka and drapanka during the festive meal.

Easter eggs are painted as follows. Easter egg ornament is applied to the egg with a pen and wax . The wax hardens and protects the surface of the Easter egg from paint. Thus, the lines drawn on the white egg will be white on the finished Easter egg , yellow on the yellow, and so on, from the lightest color to black. After painting the egg in a new color, exactly those parts that should have this color in the final version are sketched with wax.

To make an Easter egg , you will need such accessories as: eggs with a white shell, a pen, wax, a candle, a pencil and an eraser, several soft rags, containers with paint, spoons. Do not forget to cover the table with paper to protect it from drops of wax and paint.

Paints

Our ancestors certainly used natural dyes. So, for example, the yellow color was obtained from a wild apple tree or buckwheat straw, which were boiled and infused. Green color was obtained from hemp seeds, and brown from buckwheat chaff. The brown color was obtained from onion husks or oak bark, and the red color was obtained from St. John's wort tincture. At the moment, we have the opportunity to use special food dyes available in any store - mainly for eggs, since we will still eat them. And Easter eggs that are not consumed, experts advise dyeing them with acid aniline dyes for dyeing wool in order to preserve the pattern for as long as possible.

Pens

Easter eggs are painted with a special tool - a pen. Sometimes Easter eggs are also painted with matches or pins.

Those who are fond of painting Easter eggs usually have several pens with holes of different diameters, because the ornament of Easter eggs can have lines of different thicknesses, depending on the region. Bukovyna and Hutsul pysanky are usually painted with thin lines, Polish, Podil and Transdnieper - with wide ones. And also, it is very convenient and quick to cover large areas of the Easter egg ornament with wax with a pen with a large hole .

Sequence of actions

So, an Easter egg is painted in several successive stages: the egg is prepared for painting, the surface of the egg is marked, a wax pattern is applied, it is painted over, and finally, the wax is removed.

Prepare the egg for painting

Chicken eggs are usually used to make Easter eggs , although sometimes geese and ducks are also used. The egg is taken raw, because boiling destroys the layer that accepts the paint, is it possible to bake the egg  before painting - this does not threaten the picture. And they also use blown eggs . You will need a rubber pear to blow the egg . First, you need to make 2 small holes in the shell on both sides, shake the egg with a gypsy needle, and then use a pear to blow air into one hole of the egg , its contents will come out of the other. Then the eggit is necessary to rinse with water, which should also be poured into the pear and blown according to the same scheme. Then put the egg vertically to get rid of the remaining water and finally dry it. At the end, the hole should be filled with hot wax to prevent paint from getting inside the egg .

It should be checked that the egg has a strong shell, there are no cracks on it and, of course, its shape is nice and uniform, and the surface is smooth. Before painting , the egg should be washed in water and dried.

Divide the surface of the egg

To begin with, you should choose an Easter egg ornament - here we focus on our own skills and preferences.

In order to get smooth and beautiful lines and proportional parts, there is a whole technology. Take the egg in your left hand and a pencil in your right hand, put a cross on the sharp tip of the egg to conditionally divide it into 4 parts, then put the pencil and the little finger of your right hand to the egg . Rotate the egg around the axis (little finger), away from you, leaving a trace with a pencil. This will allow you to get a straight line and bring it to the starting point. After the first 4 lines are ready, the egg divides along the equator. Divide one of the lines in half, and while rotating the egg , as before, draw a transverse line. Also, you can outline the main elements of the picture with a pencil. All these markings will be erased fromEaster eggs together with wax, so the finished Easter egg will not have any traces of a pencil.

With time and experience, such marking of the Easter egg becomes unnecessary, skilled Easter egg makers paint the Easter egg immediately with wax, and mark with a pencil only when creating a complex ornament.

We paint the Easter egg with wax and paint it

Put a small piece of wax in a pen and heat it over a candle flame for a few seconds. To begin with, you should draw a couple of lines on paper to check whether the pen draws well. Then start drawing on the Easter egg , making sure that the hole of the marker is tightly attached to the future  Easter egg , and the head is perpendicular to its surface.

The pen needs to be constantly heated on the fire, as the melted wax has the ability to solidify very quickly. To get a stable and tight line, the wax must be well heated.

It is necessary to use wax, not paraffin. Paraffin is fragile and not so plastic and falls off the Easter egg . You can use a mixture of paraffin and wax.

Also, don't forget to periodically clean the pen by completely melting and pouring out all the wax to keep the hole from clogging.

Try to apply the wax without interrupting the line.

Before the first dyeing , the egg is processed in a vinegar solution - so the paint will lie better on its surface. After that, you can put the egg in the desired paint. After coloring, rinse the egg in cold water, lightly wipe it with a cloth and let it dry.

By alternately applying wax and coloring the egg in the desired color, we apply the entire ornament. After drawing in the last paint, we remove the wax from the Easter egg .

We remove the wax from the Easter egg

If the Easter egg was made from a whole egg (raw), heat it in an oven heated to 80-100 degrees for 10-15 minutes to get a warm egg with a little melted wax, which must be reheated over a flame so that the wax can be wiped off with a cloth. Such heating will ensure a long shelf life of the egg , but it is better to do it in advance, before starting to paint the Easter egg .

If the puff was painted, then just remove the wax over the flame. However, if the Easter egg has a red or white background, it is better to remove the wax over gas, and not with a candle, so that the soot that is released during the burning of the latter does not leave traces. Also, before removing the wax from the puff, it is necessary to depressurize one of the holes that we filled with wax so that the Easter egg  does not crack when heated.