Appleton Dance

I learned how to make pysanki --  Ukrainian, colored eggs -- in a class at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, Pennsylvania about 35 years ago. Traditional pysanki are made with poisonous dyes that must be handled carefully and kept away from food and food preparation areas. To make the designs, a stylus called a kistka holds melted beeswax in a tiny funnel. The beeswax is used to create a design by blocking dye with  successive layers of wax. When the egg is finished, the wax is removed by heating the egg in a candle flame and wiping the eggshell to reveal the design. My teacher said it is not necessary to remove the egg from the shell before making pysanki , but many practitioners do this. Real pysanki are nothing like the eggs you see here. Pysanki are incredibly detailed, complex and beautiful. You can learn more about pysanki at  http://www.learnpysanky.com . For my pysanki -style egg dying I used food coloring instead of poisonous dye, paraffin instea...