Category: pysanky

Pysanky!

It’s like I’ve been galloping breathlessly from manuscript deadline to edit to promotion to more deadlines and repeat. And of course in the midst of that are the usual family and personal things that we all go through. Something that calms me and helps with creativity is creating pysanky — Ukrainian Easter Eggs. But for the last dozen years I’ve been writing more than one book a year. Much as I longed for the creative solitude of making pysanky, the time simply has not been there. And then there were the sore hands. Writing takes creativity of course, but it also requires great physical effort to sit in front of a screen for hours on end, then go do research, take notes, go back to the keyboard. But I have a few weeks right now while I’m between school visits and tours. I’ve finished two novels and am waiting for edits. And my hands are not all that sore! So it’s pysanka time! I dug out my old equipment and bought new dyes. My goal is to make maybe 10. It all depends on when the next edits arrive.

The pysanka on the top of this pic is my first one, just out of the black dye and ready to be blown out and gave the wax removed. The one below is my second egg, just out of the yellow dye.

Here’s the first egg finished, plus the second egg out of the orange dye.

This is the second egg out of the red dye and about to get its last wax design before going into black dye. I’m starting on my third egg, roughly basing it on a pysanka I made about 13 years ago (above).
Here’s that second egg with all the wax now applied.
The second egg fresh out of the black dye. The third egg has a problem. See that white marking? The egg had a hot pink ink expiry date stamped on it. I removed it with water, vinegar and gentle finger scrubbing, hoping the shell would be okay, but the surface was damaged and that spot doesn’t take dye as well. Note to self: avoid date-stamped eggs from now on.
Here’s pysanka #2 with all the wax off.

Pysanky

pysanky and Prisoners

I got my first advance copy of my Dear Canada novel, Prisoners in the Promised Land, on Tuesday.

I drove in to Toronto and my editor took me out for lunch and gave it to me. It is beautiful!!! It won’t be officially released until October 1, but the rest of the advance copies should be coming in shortly.

My pencil sketches turned out surprisingly well, and I LOVE the red cover and ribbon and the girl on the cover is so perfect.This novel was the most intensive one I have ever worked on in terms of editing, historical nit-picking, fact-checking, etc, but I am thrilled with the outcome.

On the spur of the moment on holiday Monday, I decided to make a Ukrainian Easter egg for my editor, seeing as they feature in the story. I only had omega 3 eggs, with a stamping in blue saying “omega 3” but I didn’t want to get dressed and go to the store so I risked removing the stamping with Windex. And then I couldn’t find my trusty electric kistka so had to use the old fashioned kistkas with a candle. Halfway through I thought I’d better make one for the publisher too. They both turned out beautifully! I think I’ll stick to the old kistkas and maybe always use omega 3 eggs. Ha!

Here they are:

And here’s one that I did a few months ago:

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