Saturday, April 9, 2022
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM (ET)
Learn how to make pysanky (Ukrainian Easter Eggs), traditionally, using natural homemade dyes.
FREE Virtual Event / БЕЗКОШТОВНО
This workshop is offered in English.
Pysanky are decorated eggs made using the wax-resist "batik" method, in which designs are drawn or written onto the egg with beeswax, and then submerged in a series of dye baths. Beautiful and intricate, they are widely recognized and extremely popular, but their origins and traditional purpose are often overlooked. Pysanky are talismans imbued with symbols of protection and goodwill, and making them is a ritual act, a meditation. In our age of materialism pysanky have become art objects and in the interest of convenience and speed, they are made using mass produced dyes and tools. However, before aniline dyes became widely available, dyes were mostly made from natural materials close at hand. Sourcing and making natural dyes, and co-creating with nature is part of the ritual. In this workshop, Bozena Hrycyna will guide participants in making pysanky dyes from organic ingredients provided and walk you through the rest of the process of inscribing the egg with designs to experience the miraculous birth of a pysanka. She will share some of her journey re-discovering this integral part of pysankarstvo and offer insights and encouragement for you to begin your own journey of making pysanky dyes collaboratively with nature.
Bozena Hrycyna is director of FOLK CAMP, an organisation connecting people with the folk arts, crafts, music, and land based traditions of Eastern Europe in the Canadian context. As co-founder of the Kosa Kolektiv, Bozena has collaborated with many talented and skilled artists, musicians, and community organisations in Ontario (and across Canada) to promote the richness of Ukrainian and Eastern European cultures, and to facilitate meaningful connections for people (cross-culturally and within their own lineage). Bozena is an amateur singer, embroiderer, weaver, pysanka maker, and textile craftsperson, actively learning and sharing these artforms from her Ukrainian/Ruthenian heritage. She has taken workshops and travelled extensively in pursuit of deeper understandings of these and other folkways, and apprenticed to the land, spending the last four years on a homestead near Wilno, Ontario. She currently divides her time between the Ottawa Valley, and Ottawa. .
Making pysanky using natural dyes (instead of aniline dyes), you will need to make your dyes ahead of time. Suggestions for making your own are included at folkshop.ca.
(more detailed step by step instructions will be emailed to workshop participants)
Folkshop.ca and Bozena’s Etsy shop ThisFolkLife will be selling kits of natural dyes for pysanky.
Our Natural Dyes Kit for Pysanky will contain packets of:
turmeric or safflower for yellow
cochineal for pinks/purples
madder for brick/red
alum- a modifier that can be added to dyes to lighten them
Dye Kit for Pysanky (dyes only) | $40
Beginner Dye Kit for Pysanky incl. one stylus + beeswax| $55
Any additional styluses $10 each
+ shipping Canada wide $20
Local pick up available in Toronto and Ottawa.
Before the workshop:
Order your pysanky tools/kit
– Pysanky kit at folkshop.ca (Toronto pick-up available)
– Pysanky kit from Bozena (Ottawa)
– Kitsky + pysanky kits available at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada, Ontario BranchOrganize the materials and dyes required for this workshop with instructions from here
More detailed step by step instructions will be emailed to workshop participants.
While participation is free, donations are appreciated to support continued cultural programming at St. Vladimir Institute. https://www.stvladimir.ca/donate-checkout.
St. Vladimir Institute gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Shevchenko Foundation, Temerty Foundation Community Development Fund, the SUS Foundation of Canada, and Delta Bingo & Gaming.
Інститут св. Володимира висловлює подяку Фонд громадського розвитку Фундації родини Темертей при Фундації ім. Т. Шевченка, Фундації СУС в Канаді i Delta Bingo & Gaming за фінансову підтримку культурних програм.
For questions, contact cultural.svi@gmail.com
