I have taught pysanka-making to others almost as long as I have been making them myself.  My fifth grade teacher, the then Mrs. Suzanne Hunter, reminded me recently that we had taught my classmates pysankarstvo back in elementary school.  Mrs. Johannessen and I did so again, in high school, under the guise of a chemistry experiment, something like “the interactions of aniline solutions with calcium-protein matrices and the esters of long chain aliphatic alcohols*.”

While still in my teens, I taught several visitors how to make pysanky, one of whom went on to create these gorgeous eggs:

I have taught many classes since, and have become much more organized about it.  I’ve taught my nieces, nephew and their friends and cousins to make pysanky, starting as soon as they were potty trained. I’ve made pysanky with the children at our Ukrainian school, with grown-ups at our church, with friends at their houses (around the world), with nurses and other medical staff in India, and with our orphans at camps in Ukraine.  I even once auctioned off a “home pysanka-making party” for UCARE.

The following pages contain photos of pysanka-making sessions I have led through the years locally:

At St. Mary’s Church

At my brother’s house in Troy

For photos from more distant paces, go to Pysanky Around the World.  If you would like materials useful for teaching pysankarstvo, go to my Downloads page.

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1. *Translating from chemistry to English:
       aniline solutions: dyes
       calcium-protein matrices: eggshells
       esters of long chain aliphatic alcohols: beeswax
   
   

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