Folkway Feature – Pysanky Eggs
In our new series Folkway Feature, we take a closer look into the practitioners of folk & traditional arts in Western Pennsylvania. This series shares more about the work of artists featured in our Folk Artists Gallery. This article spotlights the traditional art of pysanky egg decorating that connects with our region and beyond.
Folkway Feature: Jeanne Curtis
A pysanka (plural: pysanky) is a Ukrainian Easter egg, decorated using beeswax and dyes. The word comes from the verb pysaty, “to write,” as the designs are not painted on, but written with beeswax.
Jeanne Curtis, known as the “egg lady,” throughout her hometown of Punxsutawney, has been at the forefront of maintaining the annual tradition in the local area. Learning through “practice and patience,” Jeanne initially became interested in the art form in the 1970s, after discovering a magazine article about it. “When we were kids we didn’t have much, since there were seven of us,” Jeanne told me as she plopped one egg into a cup of pink dye. She found pysanky eggs to be an economical and entertaining practice. Over the ‘80s, she honed her self-taught skills at workshops and community facilitations. Her personal practice grew interest, and she began facilitating workshops and events centered around making the brightly colored eggs, first for her girl scout troops, and elementary schools she was a librarian for, and eventually to the larger community. For years now, she has been hosting a 3-day eggstravaganza in Punxsutawney, bringing the community together. Despite saying that she’s only a facilitator of these community gatherings, Jeanne has been doing essential work in continuing a long-held tradition steeped in history. To keep up with the tradition, Jeanne even travels to Pysanky egg retreats all throughout the united states, meeting up with other practitioners and enthusiasts. Pysanky eggs have reached into many aspects of Jeanne’s life, including her “egg-mobile,” a brightly colored car with brightly-colored egg decals all over it. Laughing while telling me, Jeanne said, “everybody else has a toolshed. I have an egg-shed!”
In addition to making pysanky eggs, Jeanne has been hosting a refugee Ukrainian family in response to the ongoing war. Meeting this family in years past on a trip to the Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains, Jeanne has helped to incorporate them into the Punxsutawney community. Jeanne has also worked to help the family write and distribute a cookbook of Ukrainian recipes as a fundraiser.
The war in Ukraine has brought a new spotlight on this activity as well. Decorating them has become a gesture of peace, as the war has brought new meaning to an old tradition that dates back to pre-Christian times.
The art form utilizes beeswax, a candle flame, a kistka tool and dyes to make colorful patterns on fresh clean eggs. To make a single Ukrainian Easter egg is about a 12-step process. It requires a few hours, a steady hand, and good concentration.
The first step is taking a full egg (blowing out the yolk is usually the last step, although it can be done prior to the dying) and using a pencil to lightly draw the design. Next, a hand-held tool called a kistka is used to heat beeswax in a small flame to then apply to the parts of the egg that will remain white before the first color dye is applied. Once done, the egg is dropped into the dye, then taken out, and dried. Then the next round of wax is applied to continue this process. When finished with the design, the traditional way to remove wax is with the heat from a candle flame. When the wax softens, it’s wiped off with a cloth until it’s all gone. Then a light coat of clear polish is added to keep the colors from fading. Finally, the egg is hollowed out!
Now, more than ever, the decorating of pysanky is considered one of the ways to show that Ukrainian culture exists at a time when the war threatens to destroy sites of Ukrainian culture and heritage. Jeanne aids to facilitate this culture year after year in rural Western PA, continuing this important work.