Pysanki: Ukranian Batik Eggs
Taught by John Reinhardt
John Reinhardt is a certified urban planner and designer who supports IBM's Smarter Cities effort. He is an urban gardener, photographer, and writer and holds a BA from Villanova University and MCP from the University of Pennsylvania’s PennDesign. He previously worked at Booz Allen Hamilton and the American Planning Association working on the Hurricane Katrina recovery and rebuilding efforts, and ran the food systems blog, Grown in the City. You can follow him on twitter @jcreinhardt.
The beautiful, colorful Ukranian eggs you see are not painted, but rather drawn in beeswax and dyed, using a method known as "batik". Each color and design symbolizes something meaningful that the creator hopes to bestow upon the recipient. In this way these eggs are steeped in meaning.
The process, which takes minutes to learn and years to master, will be described in its historical context, and then participants will have a chance to create a common egg. As a class, we'll watch the colors reveal as we remove the beeswax by candle flame. Materials will be supplied as part of the course, and each participant will leave with all the materials (including dye packets) needed to continue making eggs at home.