how to make ukrainian easter eggs.

I’ve wanted to make Ukrainian Easter Eggs with my children for years. I made them in a fine arts class in high school and completely fell in love, and have been dying {no pun intended} to do them again.

The trick is finding the right tools; Ukrainian eggs need special tools, and I was only able to find them online. I bought mine from the Polish Art Center {of course} but there were a few other retailers to choose from. You need at least one kistka, beeswax, and dyes. I wanted really strong, traditional dyes so I bought a package of 16 colors online instead of using a grocery store dye kit.

Ready?

Supplies for making Ukranian Easter Eggs: Kistka, beeswax, dyes



Step 1:

Lay down two or three layers of newspaper on your work surface, this dye is really strong and you don’t want it on your counter or kitchen table.

I used mason jars for my dye baths, they’re perfect. Get out your jars and mix up your colors. Let them cool to room temperature before you start dyeing or the eggs will crack.

Step 2:

While you’re waiting for the dye baths to cool, pull your eggs out of the refrigerator and let them warm up. The wax and dyes won’t adhere to them as well unless they’re a little on the warmer side.

Step 3:

Warm up the kistka over a hot candle {use a small stub of a candle} and scoop up some wax. Now melt that wax over the candle again until it’s completely liquefied.

Step 4:

Start decorating! This is the best part. Think of the wax as negative space, everything you cover with wax will stay that color. So, if you color a white egg with swirls of wax, those swirls will stay white in the end. Each additional color you use will stay that color if you apply wax. Make sense?

Step 5:

Repeat Step 4. Keep decorating with wax and dipping into different colors. Start with the lightest color first and move to the darkest. If you have a yellow start with that, move onto red, then green, blue, and finally black. Each new dye will cover up the last, except the parts you’ve waxed. See Viktor’s egg? He’s already waxed white, then dyed it blue and he’s onto the next layer of wax.

Step 6:

Melt the wax. See all that ugly wax on the green one? It’s about to be melted off.

Like so. Gently melt the wax off the egg and wipe with a paper towel until you have no wax left on your egg at all. This is my favorite part. No, that’s not true. Waxing the egg is so awesome, it’s like this total Zen meditation that takes complete concentration and tuning out of children. But melting the wax off to see what’s underneath is very cool, it’s great to see the fruit of your labor.

Aren’t they awesome? Actually, that red one in the background belongs to Viktor and I think it’s amazing. Our brains work so differently it’s enlightening to see the artistic interpretation of that. Mine is all hearts and love and squiggly lines and Viktor’s is all straight lines and architecture.

Interesting.

My kids loved this so much I think we’re going to have to make it a tradition every year. What do you do to decorate? Anything unusual?

Let me know if you end up doing some Ukrainian Easter Eggs, I’d love to see pictures.

Have a great weekend!

Allison

Hello there! I'm Allison Czarnecki, founder + editor of Petit Elefant, a blog all about style on a budget for every part of your life: style / home / travel / family. I do a lot of how-to beauty + style tutorials, travel posts, easy recipes, home remodel projects, and cool DIY crafts you totally want to try. I'm super happily married (to a hot Polish immigrant) and am the mother of two kids, a daughter and son, all of whom are featured here on the regular. We live in the country but we're a little bit rock + roll. Welcome!