4.02.2010

cheating at easter eggs

I fell in love with the Polish community along Roncesvalles Ave when I lived in Toronto last year and one thing I especially missed this year was looking in the shop windows decorated with beautiful Pysanka (wax batik easter eggs).  Pysanka making is an ancient artistic custom that is very difficult to learn and the beautiful illustrations have great meaning to the Polish community that I could never hope to fully understand.  That being said I found a simpler way that everyone can participate in the making of Pysanka and although it may be cheating a little the eggs are almost as beautiful and quite alot of fun to make!  

A number of the Polish stores along Roncesvalles sold Pysanka Easter Egg Sleeves made of a kind of shrink wrap plastic that you cut and slip over your hollowed out egg then dip in boiling water to shrink them onto the egg.  Blowing out easter eggs is a chore and a half all on its own so being able to create beautiful Pysanka decorations in just a few seconds is very rewarding!  I got the "Traditional Ornament" set because I wanted mine to look like the traditional Pysanka I saw in the store windows but they come in a wide range of themes from Childrens cartoons to specific national traditional pictures and even product marketing logos!

 A video demonstration of these sleeves can be found here

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