Materials: everything for Easter egg painting

It is not hard to make the simplest painted Easter eggs (pysanka). There won’t be problems with the preparation of materials also – you will need just food colorings or natural pigments (onion husks, beet juice, spinach juice, turmeric). Those who decided to try themselves in the technology of traditional Easter egg painting will need to get ready for the meticulous work. And, of course, it is important to choose the right materials. So you′ll need:



Brush or pisachok

Pisachok is a special tool that is used to apply the wax patterns on an egg. This is a small metal funnel with a thin hole on the tip attached to a wooden handle. You can buy a brush in the shops with art accessories, or you can make it yourself. But for this you will need to choose the metal correctly - the usual foil is too thin, the pieces of empty paint tubes or toothpaste tubes are suitable. It is better to form a hole at the end of the funnel around the needle to make the correct diameter that will allow you to apply thin and neat lines.

During work, pisachok must be constantly filled with melted wax. This is done in two ways - either by spooning it out from a heated container, or by filling the funnel with a dry wax crumb that is melted above the flame of the candle.

So before applying patterns with pisachok, you need to draw them with a pencil - it is best to use soft (from 2B), otherwise the slate pencil will scratch the shell of an egg.



Paints

Of course, the true fans of authenticity use natural dyes while creating pysanki. However, food colorings and aniline wool colors are also suitable for work. The paints for pysanki should be liquid, vinegar should be added to most for the better applying.

Traditional colors for pysanki: white, yellow, red and blue. Green, purple, brown and red are also used.



Wax

It is best to take natural beeswax to apply patterns, but paraffin is better for painting the large spaces. Candles that will serve as the main raw material must be fine grated or scraped with a knife. If you melt wax not in pisachok, then do this either using an electric stove or over a pan of simmering water: here you need to maintain a stable temperature so that the wax does not firm.





Eggs

The choice of eggs also matters in the creation of pysanka - they must have a hard shell with a minimum of roughness. The brown eggs will be better - white have too thin and fragile shells.