Making Pysanky

1. Intro to Making Pysanky: Hi, I'm Katia, and I'm a mixed media artist, an illustrator, and I've been making Ukrainian Easter eggs since I was a kid. Piscine key comes from the word Passat, too right, making beautiful pissing KIIS similar to the petite process. But on eggs instead of fabric, I'll show you how to research traditional Ukrainian folk motifs and their meanings. You can create an egg along with me and class, or make up your own. This a pdf for you to print out and sketch on. I'll also provide links to online shops that sell the supplies you'll need. Making pissing key may become an annual tradition with you. Anyone can learn to make this inky. This class would be suitable for anyone who already enjoys drawing or making crafts. Join me in this tutorial as I teach you everything you need to know to make this traditional craft 2. Research and Design: It's easy to Google images of pissing key, as well as Ukrainian pissing key symbols or Ukrainian Easter eggs, which will bring up a lot of photos and information about what the different motifs mean as well as ideas and just great inspiration for what you might want to make on your eggs. Ah, Pinterest has a ton of pissing key imagery and information as well, and I'm giving you a link to my board called Making Fists and Key if you want to check it out. This is a great book. I highly recommend it. Eggs beautiful. It's available online, and it has gorgeous photographs in a lot of information. And then finally, this is the Pdf feel feet have printed out and play around on it and figure out some designs. 3. Materials overview: Here's everything you'll need. I'm providing you with links to some online shops where pissing key supplies can be purchased in kits. The special dies air non edible and permanence of please don't use thumb on your hard boiled eggs. Mike Wax and Mycoskie have been used many times, so they've turned black from the candle soot. When you buy your new supplies that look more like this, here's my set up. I've covered my table with some Kraft paper, but you can use old newspapers or a plastic tablecloth or even a trash bag laid out flat to protect your table from the dies in the wax. Draw design ideas on the pdf You need a pencil, which you can also use to draw your design on the egg before applying the wax. I've got a few room temperature eggs because hot wax won't stick to a cold egg. I like to work on several pissing key at a time here, the dies made in jars that have lives to keep them from evaporating. Keep an extra set of dye. Pack its on hand to replace dies that have gotten cloudy or thick. You need an AG dipper or spoon. I folded up paper towel to keep onto your egg while you're working on it. A bee's wax chunk, a few sizes of the Kiska, a candle. And I like this in egg pump. You should get one online. I highly recommend it for removing the insides of the egg. When you're finished making it, that'll be the last step of our process. We're ready to start. 4. Drawing the Design in Pencil: Here's my pdf, and I've sketched some design ideas on it. Here's the one I'm going to be making, So I'm going to start. I'm going to start with the pencil lines on the egg. I'll start by drawing a vertical line all the way around the egg, and hopefully you'll end up where you started and then draw another line in the other direction. So we're dividing up the egg into four vertical sections, and now I'm going to draw another line horizontally around the A. When I first started doing this, I would put a rubber band on the egg and draw along the edge of the rubber band, and that helped me make straight lines. So now we've got four sections on each side. I'm going to subdivide again. I'm going to add one more line in each section to divide it in half. So from the center of the middle line to the center of the star and try to match them up on the edges so that everything looks neat and even so now we've got eight sections on each side, like a little star pattern, and I'm gonna make start joined the big pointed star, and I'm giving myself some guide dots. I always do this. It will help your motifs look more even. So the guy dot is equal. All the God Doc Guy dots are equidistant from the centre of your design so that when you draw your star points, you'll start it. The guy dot and dry it a line down to meet the point of the star. That's right next to it. So everything looks continuous and then flip it over and do the other side. You do your guy dots, try to make them all around same distance, and then you know you want to pick up. You don't want to pick up your egg while you're working on it. You see, I'm leaving my egg on the table while I work on it. That's because it's safer if you pick up your egg and try to hold it in the air while you work. You could drop it, and that would be a big mess that you'd have to start all over again and it happens. But try to just keep your eye on the table like this. I keep it on this little piece of padded, folded up paper towel, which cushions it a little and keeps it clean. But it's really not that thick, so it's not going to protect your egg from breaking if you actually drop it from up high. So now we've got a big star on each side, an eight pointed star, and I'm just going to put a little spiral motif coming off the end of each point. I love spirals, they're funder. Draw and I use them a lot in my designs. Flip it over into the other side. So what we did was we began very simply with the geometric divisions, and now we're embellishing. We're filling in with our motifs. I'm also going to put a smaller star now inside the larger star. So again you place some guide dots evenly all around, and these will be the points of the small star inside the large star. So, just like you did before, go all around, creating the points of the star. It's easiest to start geometrically, I think when you're beginning to do this, because it's tricky drawing on a curved surface. But once you get some practice, you can try some more elaborate things, like flowers animals, intricate banding and patterns and just practice a lot. And don't worry too much how your first eggs turn out. But I think this is a good way to start. Okay, I'm going to do one more thing, which is thes little fringy marks coming off of these radiating lines. These air fun two draw. I think they represent, like wheat or grasses or some kind of crop, a symbol of prosperity. But they're really fun to draw, and it adds a little textural interest to your design, and it's good, a kind of filling in a little bit of the space. So you go along each one of those, and we'll fill it in the fringe, make sure you do the other side. You don't want to miss any of it. You don't have to have both sides Exactly the same. I've made eggs with one thing on one side and one on the other. But for this one, I would like it to be symmetrical. Okay, and now we're almost ready to put the wax on. Do another fringe, all right. And we're already to start using the kissed ca 5. Wax Drawing on White Egg: we're ready to begin drawing on our egg with wax. We've drawn on the pencil lines, and I have a few different Kiska sizes here in a few different kinds. One with the plastic candle wouldn't handled. They're all good. Doesn't matter what kind you get and you can play around with them and see what you like best. I'm going to use this one. It's marked on the bottom with the blue dot and I tested them out. That's the medium one. So I think I'm going to start out just using that scoop up some wax in your Kiska. He didn't in the flame of the candle. You wanted to get warm enough to start flowing out, and it issue could check it on the paper. So we're just going to start right on top of the pencil lines you drew. Keep a reheating it, scoop it up some more wax. If you need it, you'll get into sort of a rhythm off, scooping wax and heating it, scooping wax and heating it. Most of the time. The wax turns black from the soot, the carbon in the candle, which actually is good. It makes it easier to see on the egg. Um, but the wax is naturally sort of yellowish, so sometimes you can't really see the wax on the egg. It's more yellowish. Either way, it's there, and it's going to resist the die. So I'm heating it up, scooping more wax, heating it some more. And so hopefully you had some practice on the curved surface of the egg when you were drawing with pencil. This is a little bit different because you have the added technique of learning to use the kissed ca. So meet up your line and go ahead and do the other one. I'm heating up the kiss tika again. Before you even do this egg project, you might want to just taken egg and play around, making any old marks on it and then stick it in a color of die and melted off just to see what the process is. And then you won't have to worry so much. You just make an egg that you don't care about, and it might turn out really nice, too. But if you're wax blobs, anything like that, you can just know that that's your practice one. So a lot of times the wax will blob and what I always do if I blob is I just turn it into something. Make it into a big dot or flower or something like that. So, as you can see, I'm still holding my egg on the table against the paper towel. I'm not picking it up because I don't want to drop it, just rotating it as I go. I think when I do this, it helps to look just a little bit farther down the line to aim for where you want it to end up. Sometimes even on the pencil line. It's tricky to get it straight. Okay, so I've got all the major lines done. It doesn't matter what order you wax. Anything in everything that I'm covering in wax now is going to be white at the end. We remove all the wax and the colors come through, and this stuff that I'm doing now will be white. It's a very meditative thing. Set aside a chunk of time where you don't have to be anywhere in a hurry, and you just have a lot of time to do a little crafting, listen to music or whatever and just enjoy the time spent doing this For me, it has a ritualistic quality because I do it every every spring around Easter, getting ready for Easter. I remember when I got my first East drag making kit when I was a kid, and then we would just bring it out every year. It's very exciting. Time to make the Easter eggs a little more wax. I think for this egg it's fine if you have medium lines. If you want to try out a fine Kiska Fine point Kiska. When you're making yours, go right ahead. Sometimes the finer key Scott might get clogged once in a while. My kit came with this. It's ah, cleaning wire, and what you do is just stick the wire down into the funnel and poke it out the end. So if you're kissed, CA ever gets clogged. Can use the little wire. Okay, we're done. It comes out much more cleanly after that. So my this one was a little bit clocked. You see how it flows better now? Much better. So I'm just going to go around the whole egg covering all my pencil lines, and maybe you don't have to watch the whole thing. I will catch up with you after I'm done. So we actually want to point out that although I drew those little feathery strokes like the pine needles or the the wheat, Um, I'm not going to cover those in wax right now. I'm gonna leave him there. I think I'd like those to be a different color. So if you're doing this along with me, let's cover the whole egg in wax. All your pencil lines except those little feathery strokes. 6. Yellow dye: Here's our white egg with wax lines drawn on it. I put wax on all of my pencil lines except those little fringe marks coming off of these lines because I decided I'd like those to be another color, not white. So although I drew them in pencil, I just ignored them for now. All right. And so I'm going to drop it gently into my first color yellow. And now taking it out of the yellow, we'll check on the color. It looks pretty good, which is blotted on some paper towels, taking care just to press very gently and not squish it. Okay. And so looks good. Now we're going to be ready to add some more wax lines to it. All right, So I'm going to start by just doing those little fringe marks. I'm going to add them back in now with wax, and they'll stay yellow because I am putting wax on top of the yellow and we just do this all around the whole egg, do all of one side, and then the other side, okay? And now it Actually, I'm going to add another motif to the center of this sag. I'd like some more yellow in it. So I'm just going to add little lines from the very center of that star radiating out a little short lines. And this will just add a little bit more textural visual interest to the center of the motif here, kissed go frequently to keep the wax flowing. I'm also gonna add a little dot to the end of each of these short lines, and then that will be it for the yellow. Next, we'll put it into our next color blue. 7. Blue Dye: Now we'll place the yellow egg into the blue dye. This will be our last color. We're keeping the sex simple, but I think the blue, yellow and white color combination will be very striking. You can put many colors on Piston key, always layering from lightest to darkest dies. Okay, now I'm going to take out the blue eg from the die and blotted on paper towels. I think the blue is very pretty, and it's gonna look great with the yellow and white that's under it. And now we're ready to take the wax off, which will be in the next video. 8. Removing the Wax: it's finally time to melt the wax off and reveal your colorful designs. You'll need some tissues and light your candle. Hold the egg close to the candle. Flame a small section at a time until you see the wax start to glisten. I'm holding the very close to the flame, but not in it. I'm trying to keep this from getting on the egg, too, because it tends to be hard to remove. Keeping your egg to the side of the flame rather than above. It will help prevent black marks. When the wax is melted in that small area, it looks shiny. Wipe it away with a clean tissue. You'll need patients for this part because it takes a while. It's exciting to see your designs start to come through. Keep turning the egg melting and wiping one small section at a time until you've done the whole egg. I hope this simple to color design helps you understand the concepts and process so you can feel comfortable experimenting on your own. I could have used a different color instead of blue, like red or brown or black or pink anything darker than yellow or I could have started with orange as my lightest color and layered darker colors over that. It's the same process whether you're making an egg with two colors or six, always proceeding from lighter to darker colors. You can also make a gorgeous basica using just white designs, plus one other color. This egg has a lot of line work. If you wanted to make an egg that had large areas of color, for example, inside the star you would fill in that area very solidly with wax to cover the color that you want the star to remain and you would use a thicker key Stuka. So finally, when you've got all the wax off, you're beautiful. Egg is revealed, your creation is done. But there are just two more steps to do to finish your egg and make it last a long time. And those air in the next videos 9. Varnishing: so are a is technically done. We removed the wax, revealing the beautiful colors and designs. But there are a couple more steps to do to finish the egg. The next step is varnishing it to add shine and protection. I use a spray polyurethane gloss varnish like this one, and I made a drawing rack for my eggs out of a board with some nails hammered into it, creating sets of little tripods. Toe. Hold up your eggs while you spray them, and then you leave them on their while they dry. So it's a spraying and drying rack. Here are a few eggs I've completed. You just set them on top of the nails like this. I would set them up and spray them in the garage or someplace well ventilated but also protected from being disturbed or knocked over. I spray them, I let them dry, and then I turned them over and spray them again. The varnish will strengthen the eggshell and bring out the vibrancy of the colors. Then there's just one more step to go 10. Pumping the Egg: My egg pump came with the little drill like tool that used to work to make a hole at the bottom of the egg. But I think it's gotten dull over time. So I begin by scratching a tiny little divot with an Exacto knife and then even starting the whole with the Exacto knife. Um, your little drill might be sharper if you get a brand new set, so maybe you don't need to do the exact a knife part. But this is what the drill looks like, and then you can finish off the whole withdrew, and that's just the way I do it. But hopefully, maybe your drill will work better. This is the pump. You poke in the long needle, and it breaks up the yolk inside and helps the egg come out, pump it out and then fill the pump with clean water and then pumped the egg with the water until it runs out. This way, your egg will last for years without worrying about it. Rotting, varnishing and pumping out the egg are important steps to help you keep enjoying your handiwork. For many years to come, you can display them in an EC stand or a basket and give him his gift 11. Project and Final Thoughts: before even starting the class project. I do recommend taking an egg that will be your practice or experiment egg. Use a Kiska on it to figure out how it works and try out different sizes, the thick then and medium ones to see what you like best. Then proceed to the class project. After researching ideas and getting inspired. Do some sketches. Feel free to print out the pdf of the egg divisions to try out your designs, then draw on your ache and pencil following your sketch. But feel free to add additional motif, says you create. Then draw over your pencil lines with wax using aqueous TCA. Remember that if it any time the waxes and flowing, either it's clogged so you can use the wire to clean it out. Or maybe you need to scoop up some more wax. Or maybe it just needs reheating. Then layer on the colors of dye in order of from light to dark. Then remove all the wax by heating it by a candle, then varnished the egg with polyurethane spray and then pump out the insides of the egg. I'd love to see your work. Please share your progress in the class Project gallery and feel free to ask me questions in the comments section. You can also post your work on social media use hashtag making pissing key and tag me on instagram at Constable. Bingo. Thank you for joining me in this tutorial. Follow me on skill share toe learn about future classes like this one.