Annual Collections

I create many dozen pysanky each year. Most of them are given away to friends as gifts, but I try to save one of each pattern for my own collection. It does not always turn out that way, as my mother often gets the nicest eggs I make each year....

When I do make my pysanky, I make all sorts. I recreate many traditional patterns from books, magazines, and photos of those I have seen in museum collections. I make fanciful pysanky for Halloween (jack-o-lanterns), winter (snowflakes) or just for fun (penguins). I doodle on brown eggs, making interesting two-tone compositions. And I make modern patterns, using tradition motifs and patterns.

It is the latter that I create each year for Easter, and give away to friends and family. When I make them, I usually make from two to six at a time of the patterns I have chosen. Some turn out nicely, others are flops. I find that as I make more of them, I make fewer mistakes on each. Some eggs, though, are one-of-a-kind, either done just for the joy of it, to test new colors and techniques, or just to figure out how they are done.

It is also the latter that are mostly pictured on the following pages. My collections for the following years follow:

The “Pre-2004” pysanky are a bit different from the other sets. They are what remain in my possession of the modern pysanky I made in recent years. (You can find many others from that period in the Galleries section, particularly Baba’s and Laurie’s collections.) They are almost all made utilizing the newest technologies (electric styluses, a Dremel tool, and a Blas-Fix). They do not include traditional, sorokoklyn, and Trypillian eggs. Most of the brown egg pysanky I’ve created since Easter of 2007 are in their own section as well. Older pysanky (defined as those I made before I discovered the joy of not having pysanky leak and explode by simply emptying them) are in another section altogether.

I’ve included sources of the patterns when I know them. And explanation of the codes can be found here.

Enjoy!

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The usual caveats apply:

Please note that, while the designs may not be my originals, the photos and many of the eggs are my own work. If you wish to download them to use them for your own purposes--as computer wallpaper, to copy the designs, just to enjoy--feel free to do so. If you wish to republish them anywhere, please ask my permission and give me credit . Thanks.

And if I have made a copy of one of your original pysanka designs, and you would like credit, please let me know. I’ve accumulated a huge library of designs (several thousand scanned and downloaded photos in my private collection) and am not always sure who I am borrowing from.