Ukrainian Design Book 2

When I was in "art school" both undergrad and master's I recall long talks about "folk art" by teachers who really made no folk art, and to some extent seemed not only distant from it but above it. And then too heard talks by art historians who made clearly no art at all. Meanwhile in my life I was discovering the craft in the area of West Virginia I lived, learning how to make many things from thumb pianos to eggs, to corn husk dolls and apple dolls, from tatting to lace, batik, candle making, to crocheting hats and assimilating who people were, and where I was, into concrete making and doing, especially in food. I loved it. An excellent child's life happily including the making of Ukrianian eggs, pysanky. If you do not know the form just look on-line a minute. It will amaze you, if you see it in person you will be more amazed. It is said within the Ukrainian people as long as a pysanka is being made the world will never end, so at least for the last few weeks I've returned to the technique to make the eggs I loved as a child. From the perspective of my fine art teachers folk art took on a kind of craft kitsch. But I, living in people still making in WVa, tended to find the dividing line around money. I still do, as I see the craft and making disappearing with newspapers and other artifacts of American life that I value. Time is constrained, people are on-line too much, making requires funds, plus the drive to create has shifted away I think from things like this. Worrisome. What people maintained from homelands, made in their lives still seems to survive though in food. At least we have that. I think the secret we miss is teaching the young traditions like this and then sharing it with others. It is something you can do with a modest investment, this book can help you set it up and you gain a wonderful sense of the doing, of accomplishment and beauty plus share something from other cultures. I find this the real way to become culturally aware. Make the crafts, adapt it to yourself. This said, this book introduces pysanky, a technique of decorating an egg through a wax resist and dye process that always reminds me of batik. It is a wonderful resource as I no longer live in West Virginia or near any makers of this art and cannot see nor ask them a makers questions. The net is providing visual resource -say through You Tube, but I do prefer a book. I like to read, re-read, look, consider, share in book form. I found the text remarkably useful. I've had the book at least 20 years. My mother bought me this one as a wedding present. Just today reading more carefully I learned a new thing. Use an extra orange dye bath to rinse the eggs between color applications. Some colors are hard to apply after other colors. I had sort of come to that realization making the eggs but this confirmed it. Another tip that helped me, how to go back to a white background with a bleach rinse. You usually end in black. Now I know how to do something different. The

As someone who's been doing Ukrainian egg decorating for only a few months, I found this book delightful. However, if you've not used this technique before and hope to learn from this book, my suggestion is to take a class, or at the very least watch a video. The methods described in this book are precise and well written, but there's nothing like seeing it done. This book contains lovely, inspirational photos and clear step-by-step instructions for how to replicate the designs. An excellent book for anyone who loves to decorate eggs.

This book, along with an initial read of the instructions on [...] is all I needed to get started. I purchased this book through All Things Ukrainian as part of a kit that included dyes, kistkas, egg blower, and this book. I found the instructions to be easy to follow and I feel successful although I'd never even seen this art form in person before. After the description on how to do each design, there are brief descriptions of the symbolism and colors used in each design. A few designs are bleached; where you start with colors and end with a bleach dip, leaving a background of white (if you're using a white egg). I wouldn't say there is much inspiration in the book, but clear instructions on traditional patterns. I chose to start with the traditional and hope to move to more personal expressions later. I am very pleased with the patterns in this book.

If you are a beginner to the art of pysanky, as I am, this book will not be enough to get you started. It gives brief directions and gets straight to the patterns, which are after all the point of this book. The cover has color photos of all the egg designs presented in the book, the inside cover has black-and-white pictures of the sides of the eggs; the pages of the book contain only black and white line drawings of the patterns. The patterns are given step-by-step with a line drawing for each step, but as a beginner I still find some of them a bit confusing. However, they are lovely designs and for more experienced decorators (which I hope to be very soon) I'm sure the patterns and instructions are adequate. Throughout the book, where a certain pattern is used, its symbolism is briefly explained. So, if you are a beginner, get a good starter book - I am finding Jane Pollak's Decorating Eggs to be an excellent learning and inspiration resource.