Export resident colors 'eggstravagant' Easter creations
When Carol Rose is feeling up to a creative challenge, she grabs some beeswax and orders an ostrich egg from Minnesota.
If that sounds strange, then you don't know pysanky.
Rose, 61, has been practicing the Ukrainian and Polish tradition of intricately decorated and dyed eggs since she was a teenager.
With six days to go before Easter, her kitchen table is a kaleidoscope of colors and patterns and covered with hollow eggs of all sizes and textures.
“My grandmother had one in her kitchen cabinet, and I really loved it,” said Rose, of Export. “My dad gave me an old-fashioned fountain pen dipped in wax and told me to draw (on an egg).”
That was 45 years ago.
Each year, as winter turns to spring, Rose gets out several electric stylus pens that melt small beads of beeswax. The wax is applied to areas of an egg that will remain white during the first coloring, with dyes Rose orders from the Ukrainian Gift Shop in Minneapolis, Minn., one of the largest American vendors for pysanky supplies. The family that started the business was featured in National Geographic in 1972 and helped popularize the art form in the U.S.
Rose said the process — from sketching a design outline in pencil to “blowing out” and hollowing the egg and painstakingly applying layer upon layer of beeswax — helps her relax.
“It's peaceful, and it puts me in my own little world,” she said.
When she started out, Rose and her father would mix homemade dyes — onion skins for yellow, beet juice for pinks and reds, tree bark for brown.
She works primarily with chicken and goose eggs but also has created art using turkey, duck and massive ostrich eggs. She has covered each with flowers, animals and symbols that have a spiritual meaning to Rose, an Orthodox Christian.
“I have a lot of books and magazines that explain what the different designs and colors mean,” she said. “The biggest challenge is usually choosing the design. If I can't think one up, I just look one up in the book.”
The designs can take three hours or three days to complete, depending on the detail. Afterward, the eggs are coated with polyurethane to preserve them.
For 25 years, Rose took her work to Minnesota's Twin Lakes Craft Show. These days, she stays local and attends one show per year — last month's Pittsburgh Arts & Crafts Spring Fever Festival.
But she sells the eggs throughout the year to continue a hobby she picked up nearly half a century ago and has no intention of dropping.
“My dad showed me what to do, and that was it,” she said. “I just really love it.”
Patrick Varine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-871-2365 or pvarine@tribweb.com.
