These Ukrainian Easter Eggs (Pysanky) were decorated by my Great-Aunt Anna Kril Bart (Bartoszewska) and her children, in Queens, New York, over 80 years ago.  The “sticks” displayed in front of the platter are homemade styluses (kistkas) used to outline the design of these eggs with melted wax.  These styluses’ handles were made from tree twigs or wooden matchsticks, and the metal funnels were made from metal soda can cutouts, or straight pins pushed through the tips of the handles…..such was life even in New York, USA, many years ago.

Her love of Ukrainian art and tradition was passed down to yet another generation, and another, and another, and still going. Some of the dyes they used for coloring these eggs were purchased in powder form, but others were created at home by cooking red beets, onion skins, tree bark, etc.

I commend her children for preserving these Easter Eggs for all these years, and I am honored to be the recipient of this family heirloom.  I promised to preserve these and to share the story about the beginning of our family roots in the US in the early 1900s.

I also mentioned to my cousin, who passed these eggs to me, that perhaps one day I will donate them to a Ukrainian Museum, so they will remain in New York State, where they originated.

I kept my promise, so in 2023, my son and I donated these 100-year-old Ukrainian Pysanky to The Ukrainian Museum in New York City and gave them a new home.

The above displayed homemade styluses are from over 80 years ago, and next to them are a couple of styluses currently used by most egg designers.  Professional egg designers prefer to use electric styluses with a variety of tip sizes, ranging from very fine tips, used for the very fine lines of the design, to very large size tips, used for a large area to be filled with melted wax.

If you are interested in purchasing Egg Design books or some very unique Easter Eggs, you can find them here.

Here you can find Ukrainian Easter Egg decorating kits and other supplies.