All my eggs have their own personality. As I work, anything I am listening to (music, audiobook, radio) gets infused into the egg along with the design. It’s funny – eggs take several days to make, and when I come back to an egg after a break – whatever music or chapter of the audiobook I had been listening to, plops back into my head as soon as I pick up the egg again and begin to work. Must be a brain-thing. But I digress . . .

The Four Suns egg (affectionately known as ‘Celeste’) is one of my favorite designs. As you can see by the image number, I have made at least 38 of these multi-faced girls. I love the oranges and reds blending in the fiery rays of the sun. This is also one of my most difficult egg designs to make (hence, the price).

Celeste has evolved considerably over the years. I made my first on in 1996 (according to my part-number log) copied from a Pysanka Poster that I purchased online at The Polish Art Center

Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of my original egg – probably a good thing, I’m sure it was pretty scary – but it looked somewhat like this:

The evolution of this particular design began with an altering of the sun rays, which I changed almost immediately as seen in this early version:

I finally settled on rays (I was going for ‘shimmer’) and went on to tackle the face. The face has become the biggest challenge. Using the light-to-dark progression of the batik process, it is easiest to draw the facial features first using light colors. But it doesn’t look right.

Trial and error ensued. Finally, using the toothbrush rubbing technique, I was able to achieve a face that made me happy. One with dark lines and a lighter background. This is the latest version:

And of course, during this creative process, I had to apply Celeste to jewelry as well. I only did a few pieces several years ago,

and I think I’m going to give this another go with the current batch and the more modern technique.

Should be interesting!

There are several books I can recommend, that will help the beginning egger to get started, or for the veteran egger to possibly move in new directions with our craft. These images lead to Amazon.com pages, where you can read more and purchase them if you like. Here they are, in order of my favorites:

For the accomplished egger, I highly recommend this book Decorating Eggs by Jane Pollak. There are several different projects you can do with eggs, including Hanging Christmas Ornament eggs, of which I have made several batches and given as gifts. They are easy to make, and look wonderful on your tree. Also included in this book is the procedure for making eggshell jewelry. While Ms Pollak makes hers out of goose eggs, I have altered the process a bit to use ostrich eggs for my jewelry. But the basics are the same. Lots of good stuff here.

The books I started with are this series written by the women at the Ukrainian Gift Shop in Roseville Minnesota These have clear directions, drawings, and photographs, and each provide a short history of the symbols and colors used in the art of pysanka. After completing the all the exercises in these books, it naturally lead to design ideas, and a desire to continue in my own direction with this fascinating art.

Ukrainian Easter Eggs and How We Make Them
Author: Anne Kmit, Loretta L. Luciow

Eggs Beautiful
Author: Johanna Luciow

Ukrainian Design Book I
Author: Natalie and Luba Perchyshyn

Ukrainian Easter Egg Design Book 3
Author: Natalie Perchyshyn

Ukrainian Easter Egg Design Book 4
Author: Natalie Perchyshyn

So there you are – have at it!

Nan

One of my favorite ways to kill time on the internet is to search for egg stands and displays. I can easily buy standard round footed egg stands of course, and do – as you can see on my website and my eBay listings. But hunting and discovering unusual egg stands is such fun!

Several years ago, I ran across these handmade stands by Phyllis at Ponypeople – Horseshoe Nail Art. Created from (of all things) horseshoe nails! I love these. They are rustic, unusual, they can be bent to fit the egg, and the surface area is minimal so it does not cover too much of the egg. Here is an example on one of my original Trypillian style designs – the Ibex Egg

Other finds include . . .
A ceramic egg dish from Norway. The egg cup indent is offset to display the hand painted flowers.

Another handmade ceramic egg dish, the rich gold and black glazing compliments the golden wheat design beautifully

A twisted hank of seaweed found on the beach at Santa Catalina Island, California – perfect for the fish egg

Grapevine birds nests and little wicker baskets purchased at a crafts store, and added dried foliage.

And this goofy wooden egg cup from Germany. I bought a set of these in several color combination’s – I called them my ‘Mad Hen Cups’

Aint she cute?