After you’ve removed the wax from a pysanka, you might sometimes find a spot or two that need fixing up: a line that is a bit too long, an inconvenient blob of wax, or spot or two the final color didn’t cover.

You might even notice a spot or two that the dye didn’t cover while working on a pysanka, but don’t want to re-dye the whole egg. 

These types of mistakes can be fixed with markers.

Water based markers are best.  You can apply them directly to the egg and not worry about problems with varnishing. Crayola markers, Flair pens, or any fine point marker will do.  Just cover the mistake with the correct color.

Many pysankarky swear by the Micron Pigma pens; the ink seems stronger/darker, and there is a wide selection of colors.

Solvent based markers, also called “permanent markers,” do a much better job of covering over mistakes than do water based markers.  Sharpies, the most popular brand, come in a huge variety of colors.

They are fine unless you decide to varnish the egg with an “oil-based” varnish (as one does, as water based varnishes will make pysanka dyes run). Some of these markers will run.  Oddly, many don’t.  If you wish to use these markers, it would be best to test them first, by using a waste shell –– write on a shell with the maker(s), then varnish, and see what happens. 

Note: this form of touching up only works when applying darker colors over lighter ones. 

Back to Main Dyeing page
Back to Main Advanced Dyeing page

Back to Main Pysankarstvo page