Because I do Ukrainian embroidery (merezhka), I sometimes get enquiries from people wanting to learn how to make pysanky, which are painted traditional Ukrainian easter eggs. They are completely and utterly gorgeous, and in another life, I’d love to learn how to make them too! (In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy looking at the creations of others.)
I learned of a website today for learning how to make pysanky: http://www.learnpysanky.com. It might be a good place to start.
If you know of any other websites that teach or display this beautiful craft, please leave a comment in the comments section, so that others can see these wonderful websites too.
More on decorated eggs
Still on the subject of decorative easter eggs, Mary Corbet of NeedleNThread has a wonderful post about making embroidered easter eggs.
Temari would be another way to make decorated eggs – there’s a spherical temari project in the upcoming issue of Inspirations magazine (no 62). Obviously spherical is not egg-shaped, but it opens the mind up to all sorts of possibilities.
White Threads is the blog of Yvette Stanton, the author, designer, publisher behind Vetty Creations' quality needlework books and embroidery products.
Your embroidery work is lovely, Yvette! Yes, there will be a temari project in issue 62 of Inspirations. It’s mine (big smile). Temari techniques can easily be transferred to eggs. Use a Styrofoam egg as the base. Cover it with fine yarn for padding and then a thread wrap. Our Yahoo temari group, TemariChallenge, is mentioned in the article. We have a photo album of eggs made by members and a pattern in the files section.
You have inspired me to make some white ones!
Barb Suess
Hi Barb!!
Thanks so much for dropping by my blog! Yesterday my whole family (husband, daughter age 5, daughter age 8 and I) were all oohing and aahing over all your temari balls in the Inspirations magazine. We ALL thought they were amazingly beautiful. Many of them seemed beyond explanation (of how you would make them) to me!
While I’ve seen temari before, its not something I’ve ever really looked into. Excuse my ignorance, but are there simple enough designs that young kids could make them? Is embroidery – like on Oliver (the magazine project) a common part of temari, or is it mostly patterned wrapping?
Over Easter we were thinking of making a collection of NON-chocolate eggs that the kids can add to each Easter. This year the girls painted some eggs that my husband had blown.
Because they loved the look of temari so much, I wonder if that’s something I could explore with them for next Easter. And it would be a lovely gift for others too.
Hmm… so many possibilities!